Thirteen Gone Wrong
by cursebreaker
Summary: Stephanie has another guy stalking her, what else is new? The new stranger is looking for information on Morelli and Ranger, and won't leave until he gets it. What's a girl to do? Morelli is freaking, Ranger has her at RangeMan, but is it enough?
1. Chapter 01

If you like, please R&R!  
I don't own any of these characters, though there isn't a few of them I wouldn't mind finding on my door step with a bow tied around them.  
This story is post _Twelve Sharp_, so expect spoilers.

**&&&&&**

I woke up feeling groggy, dizzy, and still tired, even more so then usual. I kept my eyes closed tight, even though I could sense someone else in the room with me. I'd grown used to that feeling, someone was always breaking into my apartment as of late, thought, it's been more Ranger than anyone else, even Morelli.

I turned onto my side, still keeping my eyes closed, waiting to hear Ranger tell me to wake my ass up so that we could run. Okay, so Rangers' been breaking in in the morning so that we could run, but a girl can dream, can't she?

I grabbed my comforter and pulled it up over my shoulder, noticing that it was more chilly in my room than normal for a the Saturday before Labor Day. I smiled to myself, knowing that since Ranger wasn't going to say the first thing, I would. Ha! Take that for knowing my surroundings.

"Ranger, I'm not going to go running, so you better show yourself out." Okay, so not all of me wanter Ranger to leave, but I was trying to be as authoritative as I could in the middle of the night, early morning, whatever it was.

"I apologize, Miss Plum, but I am afraid Mr. Manoso isn't here, and running probably wouldn't be in your best interest, not unless you wanted to get shot."

I sat upright in my bed quickly. Another crazy person had found their way into my apartment. Great, this is exactly what I need. Never mind that my sister, Valerie, was guilt-tripping me into going shopping with her today, but now I was being woken up by a psychopath. Great, just great.

The man took a step towards me as I crawled my way to the corner of my bed that was the closets to the window, and my fire escape, thankful that I was dumb enough to leave it open last night. The intruder chuckled and sat on the edge of my bed, allowing me to better see him in the mix of moonlight and early morning sun.

Tall, probably around six feet, roughly three-hundred pounds, sandy brown hair, blue eyes, late twenties-early thirties, no noticeable scares or features. I studied his face closely just in case the police had to be called, which tended to happen quite a lot around me.

My name is Stephanie Plum, and I'm a fugitive apprehension agent, which is just a fancy way of saying bounty unter. I work for my cousin, Vinnie, at Vincent Plum Bail Bonds on Hamilton Ave. Sometimes people go to jail, and sometimes Vinnie bails them out, and sometimes the said arrested don't want to go back and skip their court date. My job is to hunt them down once they become FTA (or Failure-To-Appear).

"I'm not going to hurt you, Miss Plum," the man said. "I just need some information from you." I lifted my chin a bit, but remained silent, causing him to laugh and look at his hands, while he played with a gold banded ring, a wedding ring. Remember that one, Stephanie. "I need some information on a man named Ricardo Manoso. What do you know about him?"

Other than he's gorgeous, wears black, drives expensive cars, and is a Cuban sex God? Not much.

I looked at the man as panic struck me. I have a bad habit of saying things out-loud, and I prayed this wasn't one of those times. Judging by his face I would so no, but I remained quite, just to be on the safe side.

"You helped him with a few of his problems before, correct? One when he was FTA and then once not too long ago with an incident involving his daughter, is that correct?" I remained silent. So the guy did his homework. Big deal, all of the Burg knew about those things. "Alright, what about Joseph Morelli. You know plenty about him I hear."

Now he had my interest.

Joseph Morelli was my on-again, currently off-again, sometimes live-in boyfriend. He was tall, dark, handsome, and a vice cop with the Trenton PD. He hated my job (which has given him an ulcer) and I was pretty sure I loved him, at least I told him I had after almost being killed along with Rangers' daughter, Julie, a weeks ago. Problem is, I'm also pretty sure I loved Ranger, too.

"Who the hell are you?" I asked, giving him a look. Way to go, Steph, let's piss this guy off after he already threatened to shoot you. Nice job.

The man stood, straightening his tan sports coat down over his white t-shirt and blue jeans. "I can see your not in the mood for talking. If you see Mr. Manoso or Morelli, tell them I'm looking for them."

And with that he was gone.

I sat there, I'm not sure for how long, trying to figure out what just happened. I decided I didn't know, at least not entirely. I pinched myself to make sure I wasn't dreaming,. The small yelp I made answered my question. I looked over to the clock on my nightstand and breathed a heavy sigh. Five fifty-seven AM. I contemplated sleep, but decided against it, knowing my brain was fully awake and turning, even if my body wasn't.

I padded my way into the kitchen, putting some coffee on before tapping on Rex, my hamsters aquarium cage, which was sitting on the counter. Rex stopped running in his wheel, twitched his whiskers, and waited for food. When none arrived he gave me a death glare as best he could with his beady little black eyes, then went back to running.

I walked into my orange and brown bathroom, stripping out of my Metallica t-shirt and panties and climbed into the shower. I stood there letting the hot water wash over me as I thought about what the new crazy person I my life was up to.

A very big man, who was semi-frightening, knewknew where I lived. He knew that I was somehow involved with both Ranger and Morelli. It's not like Ranger and Morelli were friends, they tolerated each other, at best. When me and Morelli were "on", he knew that Ranger was a threat. God forbid he ever finds out about the night Ranger and I spent together. I knew Joe knew deep down, but it was never spoken. Joe and Ranger working together? I guess it could happen, not like they would tell me, though. They had done if before, but, again that was mostly involving me.

I stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around myself and shoved it down my little bit of cleavage to stay up and padded barefoot back into the kitchen, the coffee smell hitting my nose. I grabbed the one clean mug I had and searched the fridge for food. Nothing. I was a horrible hamster mother to Rex.

"Shouldn't be walking around naked with your front door open, Cupcake."

I closed my eyes tight and prayed this wasn't happening, but I knew it was. I hadn't seen or heard from Joe in weeks, he was off doing cop business.

I decided that looking in the fridge was the most interesting thing in the world. I heard the front door lock and I was at least one of us had some common sense to close it, I hadn't even looked after mystery man left to make sure it was locked. I just assumed it was. It always was whenever someone broke in and threatened me.

Joe's hands made contact with my waist and I stood up straight before he could get any ideas.

"What are you doing here so early, Joe?"

He walked away from me, allowing his fingers to linger on my back, before sitting at the dinning room table with a bag that I hadn't noticed. I re-adjusted my towel and caught a look from Morelli, the 'let's-have-wild-gorilla-sex' look.

I walked over to the table with my coffee and looked into the bag. Donuts. Thank God for donuts. I dug in, taking a huge bit out of a Boston Cream.

"Hungry?" Joe asked laughing. That was dumb for him to ask, I'm always hungry.

I stuck my tongue out at him as I finished it off.

"What are you doing here, Joe?" I asked, peeking over the top of my coffee mug.

"Thought you could use a ride to work after yesterday."

"Yesterday. Right."

Yesterday I was chasing down a skip named Kyle Montelone who was arrested for possession with intent to sell. He got into his car, I got into my Elentra, and through no fault of my own, my car ended up in flames, and my skip ended up not in police custody.

"I have to go to RangeMan this morning, so I have a ride. But thanks, considering that it's only," I glanced at the clock on my newly bought microwave, "seven am." I think I'll leave out the part that I was going to RangeMan to talk to Ranger about the creep that was in my apartment last night. Didn't need Morelli to upset his ulcer. "Late night?"

Joe only nodded, but he didn't need to. His blue jeans and plaid t-shirt were filthy, his brown hair was a mess. Not to mention the huge black rings under his eyes. And I could smell him across the table. Even with all of that, I had to restrain myself from jumping across the table and having my way with him. He still had the best ass in Trenton, make that best ass in Jersey.

I stood, taking in the last of what I hoped was only my third donut. "Go take a shower. I think I still have some of your clothes here. You can-"

"No, that's okay. I'm just on my way home. Just wanted to see how you were holding up." Joe stood and walked over to me, placing his hand on the small of my back and leaning down to whisper in my hear. "Bob misses you." He kissed me on the nape of my neck.

My brain started screaming. Earth to Stephanie! Get away, get away! Don't get sucked back in! You know how it's going to end! You know, big fight over work, being a housewife, blah blah blah. But, dammit, he always knew just the right spot. I closed my eyes as Joe had his tongue do a bit of magic on my neck, and I started to think about where else that tongue should do magic. Okay, so maybe this isn't so bad. We could just go into the bed, relieve some tension, and then I would go talk to Ranger. The thought of Ranger made me get butterflies in my stomach. Dammit, Stephanie, way to ruin the mood.

I stepped away from Joe.

"We're not dating anymore. We shouldn't do this. Tell Bob maybe I'll come by one day this week to watch a movie." I think that came out a little more hopeful then I meant, but that's okay.

Joe just nodded his head sure, and ran his hand over his two day old five o'clock shadow.

"Be careful, Stephanie." Just grabbed the rest of the donuts and unlocked the front door, and then closed it behind him.

I sighed, causing my wild hair to blow up. He just had to take the donuts.

"Well, Rex, looks like I need to call Ranger." I searched around my cabinets for a few minutes, finally finding some hamster pellets for Rex, and then went for my cell phone.

Oh yeah, it burned to a crisp yesterday, along with everything else in my bag. I walked over to my cordless phone in the living room and plopped down on the couch with it, punching in Rangers number.

"Yo."

"I need a favor. I sorta blew up another car yesterday. Totally not my fault."

"Babe." Why is it that Batman feels the need to only speak on word at a time?

"I was hoping to come into RangeMan today, but I have no way to get there."

"Tank will be there in ten."

"No! Wait!" I shouted. Usually after saying something like that Ranger would just have to hang up. He hadn't quite grasped the concept of good-byes yet. "I was hoping you could get me, if you're not busy. I needed to talk to you about something. Well, someone. They, uh, paid me a visit last night."

"Babe." I knew that was the end of the conversation. I hung up the phone and remembered that I was only wearing a towel.

I rushed into my bedroom, closing and locking my window before I pulled the curtains, and changed faster than I thought possible into a pair of jeans and a baggy RangeMan employee t-shirt. I ran into the bathroom and attempted to do something with my hair, but it was no use. I left it to air-dry for too long. I grabbed a tie and tossed it into a horrible mess on the top of my head, before applying some lip gloss and blue eye shadow to make up for it.

By the time I was hopping into the living room trying to get my boots on Ranger was sitting on the couch. I watched as his lips curled up, the same as a full on smile from him.

"Babe."

"Don't 'Babe' me, when I called you I was in towel. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get dressed and ready that quick?" I had my foot on my coffee table in front of him (also newly purchased) and was lacing up my boots.

Ranger leaned forward. "A towel?"

I looked up at him and new that look in his eyes. I was in trouble, but the kind that I was totally up for. His eyes had turned to black. He was wearing his normal uniform, black everything, with his black hair pulled back. I caught myself staring at the muscles under his shirt, which fit him like a second skin. I gave a nervous laugh. Way to act like a slut this early in the morning.

"Yeah, well, uh," I started rambling on about something, I have no idea what, I was just trying not to mention that Joe was there. I took my boot off the coffee table and grabbed my spare key from the kitchen counter and walked towards the front door.

Ranger was still staring at me, eyes still black, but I could tell he didn't quite understand what the hell I was talking about. Good, because neither did I, and if he understand that I was going to be more confused then I already was.

"Can we go? I was kindda hoping to borrow another one of your cars, I swear I won't blow this one up! Because my bag got burned yesterday, so I need to go get another cell phone, and cancel my credit cards, again, and then go to the grocery store because Rex is going to starve to death if I don't." Ranger got up off the couch and walked over to me, pushing me into the door, letting his hands rest gently at my waist.

We just stood there for a moment, and I was really hoping that Ranger would kiss me. That would be a good morning. A really good morning. That man could kiss like something else.

"Where's your gun?" he asked.

"Huh?" I was pretty sure I was breathing a little heavier and I had licked my lips.

Ranger walked away and went over to my teddy bear cookie jar, grabbing my gun out of it. He checked to make sure it was loaded, which it wasn't, and then shook his head, walking back to me. He grabbed me, so that our bodies were right up against each other, and lifted the back of my shirt, causing me to gasp at the sudden skin to skin contact, before I realized that he was shoving the gun in the small of my back.

Ranger led the way out of the apartment, and I followed him, giving him the best Burg glare that I could.

Yeah, Ranger knew how to play with my emotions. Bastard.


	2. Chapter 02

**Disclaimer**: I sadly own nothing.  
Please review! I'm always open to thoughts about where the story should go. Hopeful the grammar is a bit better in this chapter, I hopfully picked everything up this time. ;)

**&&&&&**

I sat with Ranger in his shiny black SUV in complete silence. I was enjoying looking out the window and the feeling of the perfect leather seats surrounding me. Leather seats were always a plus. I turned to look at Ranger, he was in the zone, as always. I didn't have a zone. Hell, I didn't even know where to begin looking for one, but Batman was being nice and quiet in the Batmobile. I sighed heavy, and wrapped my arms around me, still staring at Ranger. He glanced over at me, and then quickly back to the road.

"What?"

"You're not even going to ask me who I wanted to talk to you about?" I yelled at myself inwardly. I should have worn a jacket. I knew I would be freezing later. I could feel it already. I wrapped my arms tighter around myself. Ranger noticed this and turned up the heat in the car.

"No."

"You're not even curious?" He turned and glanced at me. Of course not, Batman doesn't worry like that. I inhaled sharply and started playing with the end of my shirt. "He didn't tell me his name." I started. "I just woke up, and there he was. He started asking all these questions, about you and Morelli." I looked back up to Ranger. I had his intention. His knuckles were white as he gripped the steering wheel and parked the Porche in the garage of the RangeMan building. He turned towards me. "Well, not really a lot of questions. Just wanted to know what I knew about you two. He said he was looking for information."

"Go on."

"That's basically it. Just asked what I knew about the two of you. He did his homework, though. He knew that Joe and I had a past, and he knew about what happened with, uh, with Julie. Told me tell you that he's looking for you."

Ranger nodded. "What he look like?"

"Tall, about six feet, three hundred pounds, light brown hair, blue eyes, was wearing a wedding ring. Caucasian. Nothing really special about him. Could probably blend in with a crowd easy."

Ranger got out of the car and walked around to my side, pulling me out by my arm and gently pushing me towards the elevator.

"I'll have Tank show you some pictures, see if you recognize anyone. We'll get the problem taken care of."

The elevators arrived and we went to the fifth floor, the command center. We stepped out and everyone quieted. Of course they did, Ranger could do that to a person.

**&&&&&**

I was once again riding around in Ranger's truck when I arrived at the bond agency at noon. None of the pictures Tank had showed me were even close to the guy in my apartment this morning, which was a big disappointment for me. I felt like I just dropped a huge problem in Ranger's lap with no way of helping. I think I at least gave him some amusement when Morelli called to see if I wanted to get lunch and talk and I had to remind him that I was at RangeMan.

"Is that Rangers' car?" Lula asked as soon as I walked into the office. Her nose was pressed up against the window.

"Yep," I said throwing my new purse down on the fake leather couch, a purse that now included a key to my apartment, RangeMan, Rangers' truck, a new cell phone, stun-gun, pepper spray, and my gun which actually had bullets in it for once. I'd finally gotten to the point of don't ask, don't tell with these things and Ranger. And I definitely didn't want to know who had access to the key the to my apartment.

"Nuh uh girl," she said, placing her hands on her hips. Today Lula was wearing a baby blue spandex skirt that landed about three inches below her ass, a white tank top that I had trouble thinking I would fit into, and three inch clear pumps. Could you tell she was an ex-ho? And did I mention that Lula was a big black woman? And when I say big, I mean if her clothes were any tighter I think we would be seeing a two-hundred plus pound naked woman standing in the middle of the office. "What are you doing with that mans' truck?"

"I tried taking down Kyle Montelone yesterday and my car ended up on fire. This ones on loan."

"Your lucky that boy gives you anything to drive around in anymore, at least anything that looks like that. That's a good car. I'm surprised he doesn't have shit cars waiting in the wings for you." I knew Ranger had a taste for nice cars, and a reputation to uphold, but frankly, I was starting to get a little surprised to.

"Did you have anything new come in?" I asked Connie, the office manager. Connie was about five pounds heavier me, but everything was right in her boobs. Lucky. She tended to remind me of Betty Boop.

Connie looked up from painting her nails a fresh coat of fire engine red to look around her desk.

"Actually yes. Mooner went FTA yesterday." I looked up to the ceiling. Yes, there was a God.

Mooner was, simply put, a stoner, and the only reason that he would go FTA would be because he didn't know what day it was. A while ago he helped me out, and he was never a trouble to bring in. Usually I just made some coffee and watched a couple hours of Bewitched and then took him down to the station. And that was fine by me, I really wasn't in the mood for chasing down anyone today. The only thing I ever had to worry about with Mooner was getting a second hand high.

"I'll take it." I walked over to the desk and looked briefly at the file, just to make sure nothing had changed, and then stuck it in my bag.

"Girl, you look donut deprived, why don't I go with you and we can stop by the Tasty Pastry on the way. Let me just grab my bag." Lula started scurrying around the room, searching for her purse, and not so silently cursing about not being able to find it. I love Lula, but she was an even worse bounty hunter than me, and that was pretty hard to do. She was always eager to shoot someone, but most of the time when shooting should be happening, she got scared and ran. Not to mention that she was deathly allergic to cops, and had a habit of leaving me stranded at the police station after bringing someone in. Something I was not willing to chance with Rangers' truck, especially if she managed to figure out the GPA system.

"Don't worry about it. It's only Mooner. I'm just gonna go home after that, I think I just need some rest today, I'm not feeling exactly right."

"Huh. You'd be feeling right if you were getting some, especially from that fine ass Ranger. Seriously, girl. And if you can't have a man do it for you, do it yourself. It's better than nothing. Whatever happened to that Horsecock you bought with me, huh? That's a good dildo." I would have kept listening to Lula rant on and on about the dildos we bought while on an apprehension before at Treasure Pleasures, but I had noticed that Ranger walked into the back door of the office and was staring at her with a combination of amusement and horror.

"So, in conclusion, either do that shit yourself or have Ranger do it for you. Shit, if it weren't for me having the wild nasty stuff going on with King Kong Tank, I would be all over that boy." Lula reached down on Connie's desk, still unaware of Ranger, and picked up a file to fan herself with. "Shit, look at me, just thinking about that boy gets me all hot and worked up. We need some fried food about now, that's what we need."

I was doing all I could not to bust out laughing.

"You could say thank you. I'm pretty sure she means every word that she says," I said to Ranger. Connie had noticed him walk in, and was now sitting at her desk, slack jawed.

"Girl, who are you talking to. I don't see nobody here for you to be talking to," Lula said, obviously not noticing Ranger standing ten feet behind her. I never had that problem. Ranger got within a hundred yards of me and the hairs on my neck stood up.

I covered my mouth with my hand and pointed behind her. Lula turned and saw Ranger, and that was the last thing that she saw before she hit the ground. I made a step towards her, but Connie stopped her.

"Leave her. It will be quite around her until she wakes up." I shrugged and looked over at Ranger, he had a smile plastered on his face. I cleared my throat.

"Did you need something?" I asked.

"Outside," Ranger replied motioning towards the back door. I followed him, giving Connie a finger wave as I climbed over Lula laying on the first and made my way out the back.

I had barely heard the door close behind me when Ranger had me pinned to the wall of the outside of the building. He leaned in and kissed me. Usually when Ranger and I find ourselves in these positions it's a full kiss. I mean, lots of tongue, probably a moan from me, somehow his hand will find it's way up my shirt, and some seriously thinking about whether or not it would be inappropriate to strip right where I was and have him there.

This wasn't like that.

It was soft. No tongue, just a light brush up against my lips and then a little tug from him at the end on my bottom lip.

Not what I expected.

"You needed something?" I asked, trying my best to keep my voice from shaking. Although it wasn't what I expected from Ranger, it was still damn good. It was actually close to perfect. I seem to associate that word with him a lot, not a good thing. I knew Ranger was far from perfect, but damned if he wasn't able to have great cars and do some things very, very well.

Ranger smiled, still holding me up against the wall. He leaned in and kissed me again, in the same manner.

"That was it." Ranger backed away from me and walked over to his SUV, and I stood there, against the wall. Speechless. Usually when Ranger pulled something like that there was something else attached it. Whether it was him trying to get me to go to a safe house, or I was trying to get him to do something for me, there was always something else. He never just showed up, kissed me, and then walked away.

I watched him angle into the car and drive away.

When I finally regained my composure I snuck around the front of the building, not wanting to go back inside and deal with Connie's questions, but mostly not wanting to hear Lula go on and on about what had happened. She was going to have a hard time living this one down.

I swiftly made my way to the truck and pulled out onto Hamilton. I thought about what Lula said and decided that more donuts couldn't hurt, especially if I was going to a stoners house. I did a quick swing by the Tasty Pasty, picked up a dozen random donuts, and then head over to Mooners'.

I pulled onto Mooners' street and parked in front of house. I dragged myself out of the car and grabbed the donuts, made my way on to the porch, and knocked, hopefully loud enough for them to hear.

"Dudette, it's totally a pleasure" Mooner said when he answered the door. He took a step to the side and I smiled as I walked in, already smelling the pot.

"Well, Mooner, you missed your court date. I need to take you down to the station and get you rescheduled, but on the bright side I have donuts."

"Aw, man, it's these damn sharpies, they totally don't work. I should sue them or something for sure. But donuts, totally awesome." I smiled at Mooner. Hey, I can't helped it, I liked the guy.

"Do you have a big TV day set up or can I just take you right in." I peeked around the corner into the living where the big screen TV was. Not much of anything seemed to be going on.

"No, but can I be back tomorrow? They're having a Fresh Prince of Bel Aire marathon since it's on Nick at Nite now. Can't miss the opportunity to rap along with the Princes' theme song all night."

"I'll see if I can get Vinnie to bail you back out, but that shouldn't be a problem." I placed the donuts down on a small table that was by the stairs. "I'll just leave these here for when you get back." I put my hand on the front door, a bit surprised that getting Mooner in was going to be this quick.

"Righteous," he said as he led the way out of the house, not even bothering to lock the door. I sighed, but followed him anyway. "Oh, did your friend ever find you?"

I stopped walking half way down the steps as Mooner saw the truck.

"Dudette, is this truck yours?" I just nodded my head. "Totally awesome." I hit the unlock button by force of habit and followed Mooner over to the car. I climbed into my side of the car as Mooner climbed into his and we put on our seatbelts.

"What friend was looking for me, Mooner?" I asked as I started the car.

"Oh, this big guy. Didn't say his name, was just asking a lot of questions about you. He told me that you would be coming to get me, that's why I was all prepared and ready."

I started driving towards the Trenton Police station, trying to keep the thoughts in my head from kicking into over drive.

"How long ago was this guy there? Was it sometime today?"

"Yeah, like right before you got there. He asked if I you normally took me down to the station and I said of course, the dudette looks out for me."

I sunk down into my seat and checked my review mirror. No tail that I could see, but that didn't mean anything. As we got closer to downtown there were more cars, and I knew from experience people could tail me and I would never know it.

"Did he ask anything else about me?" We stopped for a red light and I looked over at Mooner.

"No, but he asked about two guys. One I didn't know, but I knew Morelli's name because you two date, I told him that. He said to tell you that he would see you later and if I happened to see Morelli at the police station to let him know that he stopped by. I was all, sure, anything for the dudette. She needs a message, I'll totally get it to her. I'm your man."

I groaned as the light turned and I continued to the police station. I really didn't want to tell Morelli about this, I wasn't sure why. Oh, that's right, I was mad at Morelli until this morning when he showed up looking rough and carrying a bag of Boston Creams. He probably wasn't even at the police station, so I didn't have to worry about him seeing Mooner, when he called me at RangeMan he said that he woke up to let Bob out and was going back to bed. As mad as Morelli made me whenever we broke up, I still cared about him, and this would just worry him. I could tell Ranger because, well, it was Ranger. Batman can fix any problem. I knew he worried about me to, but as far as I knew I had yet to cause him any medical problems like Joe.

When there was a situation like this Joe tended to scream and holler and demand that I stayed locked up in a room and not leave until the problem was resolved. Ranger would try to get me into a safe house if things got bad, which I usually refused, and then just stick a bunch of his Merry Man on me. I think they probably had to draw straws to see who got stuck with me. I had a habit of bringing some of them down.

We pulled into the back of the police station and I took out my new cell phone, making a call and letting them know that I had a FTA here. Normally, at this time of day I would just take them to the front and get them to the judge, but I was on edge over this whole thing and I felt safer going around back. I figured I was just being overly cautious, but this guy had me rattled. Better not to take any chances before I talk to Ranger again.

Mooner and I got out of the car and went towards the back door as we waited for someone to open up for us. I hadn't bothered to cuff him, it was pointless. Mooner wouldn't run from me. I think he probably thought everything was in slow motion most of the time.

"Hey Mooner," I said, "if you Morelli in there, don't tell him about the guy coming and looking for me. He's probably busy and I'm going to see him tonight so there's really no point. Besides, the guy is part of a surprise and if you tell him it will ruin it." Smooth Plum, real smooth.

"Aw, no sweat, dudette," Mooner said as the door opened and a cop I didn't recognize led us into the station. I was almost thankful for that. I didn't want to see any cops that would tell Morelli I was around right now. There was always a chance that in ten minutes Mooner would forget this conversation and start blabbing away. It made me think about how long before I got to his house the mystery guy had been there. "Your secret is totally safe with me."


	3. Chapter 03

Disclaimer: I own nothing. It's sad, really.  
Please review! Any thoughts on where you want the story to go is always alright.

**&&&&&**

After an uneventful afternoon of grocery shopping and cleaning my apartment out of complete boredom, I now found myself in my thinking position - spread eagle on my bed. I turned my head to the side and almost gagged. Man, I smelled. I should probably take a shower, but showering involved moving and I wasn't doing that, so I just rolled over on my stomach instead. There was some seriously thinking to be had and I wasn't leaving until I figured everything out, even if I didn't have much to go on.

The mystery man, or Bane as I was calling him, knew were I lived. He knew I had a relationship with both Ranger and Morelli. He knew were I worked and knew which skips I was going to go after probably before I did. So question number one - how did he know that I would be going to Mooners'? Neither Connie nor Lula would have said anything to him, and the second I walked into the office they would have been talking about him if he had been there. Maybe he had somehow overheard what was being said when Mooners' file came up. That would mean that he had me bugged. Okay, that was creepy.

I ran into my bathroom and stripped down and looked myself over naked. I didn't see anything stuck to me, so that must have been a good sign. I took a quick second look and decided that tomorrow I was going to go running, I needed it. I tossed on a bathrobe and carried my smelly clothes for the day into the kitchen where I proceeded to stuff them in a garbage bag and shove them out the kitchen window. I felt a little better. I looked around my apartment quickly, just making sure that nothing was there that shouldn't be, just make sure that my apartment wasn't bugged. Nope, nothing. I sighed and went back into my bedroom, back to my thinking position.

I wasn't sure how, if at all, Bane had gotten my clothes bugged, but that seemed like the only real possibility. I highly doubted that he would have been able to tap into anything that Ranger gave me. It's not like Batman was careless. I got up again and grabbed my bag, dumping it out onto the kitchen table. I heard a small clash and rolled my eyes when I realized a bottle of nail polish had rolled off the table and broke. Fantastic.

I went over to the kitchen counter and grabbed a roll of paper towels to clean up the mess. The only thing that would make this day even better would be if someone decided it would be a good time to break into my apartment and see me on my hands and knees in a bathroom cleaning up nail polish. I looked up quickly and peeked around the corner, all the locks were bolted. I picked up the mess of nail polished paper towels and threw them out before tossing Rex a couple of grapes. Hey, I could buy healthy food if I need to, I could even be a decent mother to Rex.

I dragged myself into the bathroom and took off my robe, before stepping into the shower. This Bane stuff was driving me nuts, and so was on own smell.

I stood under the water, my head down, trying to think of how this guy was figuring out where I was going to be. Where else could he have heard? The office. Maybe he has the office bugged. Sometimes Vinnie bugged the office just make sure we were working, while he sat in his and fornicated with barn yard animals ... or Joyce Bernhardt, but there really wasn't much of a difference there. But how did he have it bugged? Maybe Vinnie did and he was some how tapping into that from outside? Never say never. That was starting to look like a possibility. I would have to check out and see if anyone could do that.

I was stepped out of the shower once I started to look pruney and got changed into a pair of boxers and a knit tank top that I had hanging on the back of my bathroom door. I walked back into my bedroom. It was only six ten and I was already exhausted. It couldn't do much damage to go to bed, could it? Not like I had anything to do. I crawled under my covers and let out a content sigh. I closed my eyes, started to drift off to sleep and then ...

... the phone rang.

"Hello?" I asked reaching over to the floor were my portable phone was in a pile of clothes. I could have sworn I cleaned them up earlier.

"Where are you?" I heard mother whisper.

Oh boy. "I'm in bed trying to get some sleep. I woke up un-Godly early this morning."

"Your sister is here crying her eyes out because you stood her up today? And what's this I hear about another one of your cars blowing up? Lisa DeAngelo never has this problem. Her daughter, Claire, works at the button factory. I could get you an application."

"Mom, I don't want to work at the button factory."

"You're late for dinner." Once again, dinner overcomes me almost being burned alive in my car.

"I never agreed to dinner."

"Be here in ten minutes. I have pineapple upside down cake." Click.

This day was perfect. I'm being stalked, my apartment is getting broken into, and now I'm already fifteen minutes late for dinner. I'll be surprised if food isn't burned and I'm not disowned for this.

I tossed on a pair of sweatpants over my boxers, not caring about what I looked like and ran into the kitchen, grabbing my bag. Normally I could get to my parents house in the Burg in ten minutes, if I was lucky and hit the lights right I could be there in four. If there was every a time for God to prove that he existed to me, right now would be it.

"Going somewhere, Miss Plum?"

I turned from where I was now standing in my kitchen looked into my living room. Bane.

I looked towards my ceiling. "You've got to be shitting me."

"I was hoping we could finish our conversation from this morning." I placed my bag on my shoulder and grabbed Ranger's keys.

"I'd love to stay and chat, but I'm late for dinner. Seeing as you like to break into my apartment, please, stay, I just went to the grocery store." I walked over to Rex's cage and picked it up. "Stay as long as you like."

"I hope you're not thinking about running to a friend's house, Miss Plum. That would be unwise. I just have a few questions for you and then I'll be on my way." The truth was I wasn't sure where I was running to, but I sure as hell knew that I wasn't coming back here. At least not tonight. Not until I knew if there was a bug in there or not, which I was starting to become more and more certain of. This creep probably had everything bugged.

"Maybe if you were a little more open with me I would talk to you." I placed Rex's cage under my arm and balanced him on hip as I made my way for the door. Two minutes had passed. I was sure the pot roast would be burnt if that's what my mother was cooking. The world was going to be coming down on the Plum household when I arrived.

"I'm afraid I can't do that not, Miss Plum. I see you're driving Mr. Manoso's truck. It's a lovely truck. I hope everything went well with him today, and I sure hope you enjoyed your donuts with Mr. Morelli this morning. You had four, right?" I could have sworn I only had three, but how this guy had any idea that I had seen both of them, and knew how many donuts I had, was more than unnerving.

"I'm late," I said as I opened my front door, not bothering to close it behind me. I pushed the button for the elevator and waiting, hoping that it would come soon.

"I'll be waiting for you to return!" I heard him shout from my door, and then close it. The creep was holding out on me coming back home tonight. Showed how much he knew.

When the elevator finally arrived I was thankful no one was in it. I hit the button for the lobby, got out, and pretty much ran the entire way to the Ranger's truck, pretty sure Bane was watching me from my bedroom window, but not having the nerve to look. I wasn't worried about anything happening to me in this car. This was Rangers' personal property and I highly doubted anyone would try to blow me up in it. Besides, it was hooked up to the RangeMan system I would think knowing at least my record that any car they gave would have a bomb detection system in it.

Okay, so I had blown up Rangers' cars before, but that didn't mean I couldn't think happy thoughts while a crazy man was watching me from my bedroom window, could it?

I wrenched open the door, put Rex on the passenger seat, and took off like a bat out of hell. I couldn't go home for dinner, I didn't want to chance the freak following me there. I took out my cell phone and dialed my house. My sister answered.

"You stood me up today!" She sounded like she was still crying, and honestly if I had her three kids and Albert Kloughn, her husband, to deal with, I think I probably would to.

"I'm sorry, Val, but something came up at work and I couldn't get out of it. Can you put mom on the phone?"

I heard Valerie place the phone down on what I assumed was the kitchen counter. "Mom! Steph is on the phone to tell you that she's not coming to dinner!" I pulled the phone away from my ear and gave it the best death glare I think was possible, considering I was threatening to kill something that wasn't actually alive and could feel pain.

"You're not coming?" I heard my mother say as she started rummaging around. She was going to start tipping, and it was going to be all my fault. I would be hearing about this night for the rest of my life.

"I was going to! I swear! It's just that right after you called Joe did and asked if I wanted to go and get something to eat at Pino's." I was getting way to good at this lying thing. My mother saw Joe as my last chance to be married off, and if there was ever any reason for me to miss a dinner, this was going to be it.

"Joe! Why didn't you say so! Be here tomorrow for dinner, and make sure you bring him. It's been a while since he's been here for supper." In the Burg, enough dinners with a girls family is the same as being married. Joe was dangerously close to going over that line and I was dangerously close to going insane if he did.

I heard Grandma Mazur yelling in the background. "You're grandmother wants to know if it's true you blew up another car."

I sighed. "No, tell her I got into an accident and it caught on fire." My mother started muttering and I could almost picture her crossing herself. "Mom, I would love to chat, but I'm going to be late for my dinner with Joe. Bye."

When I slammed the phone down away from me I noticed that I was at Cluck in a Bucket and I heard my stomach growl. If I was missing my mothers food and Pino's, then I was definitely getting something to make my insides shut up. I pulled into the drive-threw and got a bucket of chicken, half a dozen rolls, and a tub of mashed potatoes. I wasn't planning on eating all of that by myself, but I figured where ever I was going for the night I was probably going to have to bribe someone into letting me stay there.

I pulled into a spot and grabbed a roll, taking a big bite out of it as I weighed my options. I could call Joe, tell him everything, and then go spend the night at his house, but I was afraid it would end in sex, and I really didn't want that from Joe right now. We were having a hard time getting the "just friends" stuff down after we broke up last, and I didn't want to mess it up. I didn't want to stay with my best friend Mary Lou, hell I didn't even want to go over her house most of the time with the pack of kids that she has. I didn't want to stay home, with my sister, my parents, or Lula, I didn't want any of them in danger because of this freak. Only one choice left. Ranger.

I put the truck in reverse as I held a second roll in my mouth and drove quietly to the RangeMan building. It was an unmemorable building in an area of Trenton that had a lot of old factories. I knew from past experience that Ranger had an apartment there, as well as apartments for RangeMan employees when they needed it, and I hoped that he would be gracious enough to let me use one for the night. The safest place I knew always seemed to be with Ranger, whether I liked the fact that he could get me to do almost anything or not. Not I said almost anything. I must be getting better at this self-control stuff then I though.

I came up to the building and grabbed my keys, hitting the little button to open the security gate to the garage. The second that you entered this building you were on camera, and sure enough Ranger would know that I was there before I even got out of my car. I parked in one of the four spots reserved for the man himself and walked around to the passenger door, grabbing Rex under my arm, tossing my purse over my shoulder, and barely being able to balance the bucket of chicken, rolls, and potatoes in my other hand. I'm sure everyone in the control room was getting their moneys worth out of me tonight.

I carefully walked to the elevator and hit the up button and almost immediately there was an elevator for me. I walked inside and then I faced a new problem. I had put the keys so that I could get to Rangers' apartment on the seventh floor in my purse. My purse was on my shoulder and my hands were full. I sighed and kicked button number five with my foot. I walked off when the elevator stopped, smiled at Tank, Bobby, and Lester, and dropped everything but Rex on the floor. Lucky for me the food had lids.

I picked at the food and managed to fit four pieces of chicken, half a tub of mashed potatoes, and two more rolls into one container and placed the rest on a chair in front of the guys, them staring the whole time.

"Is Ranger here?" Tank nodded his head. "Is he in his apartment." Another nod. I rolled my eyes and motioned towards the remaining food. "A present, from me to you." And walked back to the elevator. It came quick, again, and this time I could hit the button on the keys to get to seven. The doors opened up on the top floor, and there was Ranger waiting for me.

"Babe," he said.

"I know."

He looked down at Rex, who I had placed on the floor while rummaging through my bag and looked back up at me, the corners of his mouth turned upwards.

"I brought chicken!" I was trying my best at being nice, but when Ranger did the no-talk-just-laugh-and-smile-at-Stephanie routine, it tended to get old quick.

He bent down at picked up Rex. "It's fried."

"So?" I said as I followed him to his apartment door. He opened it, taking his keys from my hands and placing them in the silver dish to the side.

"I don't eat fried food."


	4. Chapter 04

Disclaimer: I only own the creepy guy that no one knows about, all else is by Janet.  
Thanks to a good idea from the lovely XJerseyGirl, I'm looking for someone who would be willing to read new chapters before I post them to pick up things that I miss. If anyone is interested, see my bio for all my contact information.  
Keep those reviews coming! And I'm always open to ideas of where the story should go.

**&&&&&**

I was sitting on a stool in Rangers' kitchen shoving my face with the last of the potatoes while he was on the phone with Tank, trying to figure out who the guy in my apartment had been, since we had all done such a bang up job of it earlier. He didn't seem to like the idea that Bane knew that Ranger had seen me to today, and he seemed kind of neutral about the fact that Morelli was over this morning with donuts.

Alright, here's the thing. I know that Rangers' life is not open to a relationship. I know that, really I do. I asked him what he was to me before, and he said he was dessert, and that's where we get into trouble, because I love dessert. I could live off of nothing but TastyKakes if I had to with no problem. Even though I knew this, I couldn't help but find myself attracted to Ranger and hope that maybe one day he would come around a want something more. In the meantime, I had Morelli as my backup.

I know, that's not completely fair, I really did love Morelli (I think), but we always fight. Always. Morelli doesn't trust my instincts and usually doesn't listen to them, about anything. At least Ranger pretends to care, and that's all I need. Besides, Morelli wants a Burg housewife, and that was definitely not going to be me. Not in a million years. I wouldn't mind having some Morelli fun on the side though, but I wasn't completely sure that this no-strings-attached thing with Morelli would work. Way to much history. That man has been peeking up my skirt since we were in his garage at six playing choo-choo. I never got to be the train, only the tunnel.

"You really should call Morelli and tell him about this. Not only does this guy like breaking into your apartment, but he knows what you're going to do and when." Ranger had his hands both placed on the island that I was eating at and was looking across at me.

I wiped my face with a napkin. "Do I really need to? It's not like this is a big scary guy or something."

"Babe, he threatened you."

"Yeah, but not like to my face. Just suggested that he would hurt me. He's not all that scary." Ranger just shook his head before tossing his cell phone at me.

"Call Morelli, and don't argue with me."

"Is there anything you want to tell me first?" I asked picking up the phone and punching in Morellis' number, but not yet pressing send.

"Like what?"

"Like why this guy is so interested in you and Morelli? Usually it's one or the other with you guys. You working together on something?" I just got the Ranger stare. "Fine!" I said jumping off the stool and walking towards the bathroom as I pressed the send button. I had a feeling Morelli was going to be in the yelling mood, and I didn't think that would sit best with Ranger. He had a habit of taking the phone from me when that happened and hanging it up.

"Hello?" Morelli asked, sounding out of breath.

"Busy?" There was a beat.

"Steph? What the hell are you doing calling me from Rangers' phone?" I heard a brief bit of noise and figured he was walking around the police station.

"There's been a situation at my apartment and I think I might be staying at Rangers' for a few days."

"Jesus," I heard a door open and close, "why can't I have a normal girlfriend? One that doesn't get shot at and have people kidnap her on a weekly basis?"

"First, we're not dating anymore, remember?" I put the seat down on Rangers' toilet and sat on it. This was going real well. "And second, it's your damn fault that I'm staying at Rangers'." Morelli gave what sounded like a grunt. "Yeah, the guy that keeps showing up in my apartment."

"Keeps?"

"Uh, yeah, when I was awake this morning he was there, that's why I was already up when you came over."

"Shit, Steph, you should have told me."

"Will you let me finish?" Silence. "Thank you, anyway, this guy showed up not really wanting to kill me or anything, he was just asking a lot of questions, about you and Ranger. Wanted to know how well I knew you two. Then I picked up Mooner this afternoon and Mooner said the guy had been there. Then tonight the guy was at my apartment and he knew everything I did today. Oh, and we're expected at my parents house at six tomorrow night for dinner." Hopefully he won't pick up on that last bit until it's too late.

"Where are you now?"

"RangeMan. Ranger is loaning me an apartment tonight so I don't have to go back to mine."

"Is you loaning you his?" I laughed.

"Ha, no." Maybe.

"You saw this guy again, you would recognize him?"

"Pretty sure. He was pretty normal, which I think was the most unusual thing about it all. Ranger already had be go through, oh, a million pictures, didn't see him yet though."

"Just, just stay close to Ranger until tomorrow. I'll come get you and you'll stay at my house until we figure everything out. I gotta get back to work. I'll talk to you later." Click.

What was it with people and hanging up on me today? It's Gods' fault. He was trying to see how much he could pack on me before I just go crazy and runaway to California or Alaska and start over.

I took a deep breath and walked back into Rangers' kitchen were Ella, his house keeper, now was.

"Hello dear!" she said pleasantly as she looked at me. "I wasn't aware that Mr. Manoso had any guests." She quickly looked around the room. "I'll bring up a cake for you and some clothes for tomorrow, since I don't see any here."

"Oh, no, really, not necessary." I watched as Ella walked towards the door, wearing her own black outfit of black jeans and a black long sleeves shirt.

"Nonsense! I don't see any clothes here and you don't expect to walk around tomorrow dressed like that do you?"

I looked down at myself. I forgot that I was in my pajamas. I nodded my head yes and Ella smiled, quickly making her way out of the apartment. I didn't see Ranger anywhere. Just what I needed, he goes off and leaves me alone. I walked myself into the bedroom and took my sweatpants off, slipping under Rangers' sheets.

What was I doing? Ranger never said I was staying in his apartment, did he? Didn't think so. Yeah, but his sheets are perfect and comfortable and I'm sure he wouldn't mind if I just took a catnap. Besides, he had climbed in my bed while I was sleeping and surprised me, and when I woke up he was naked, not my fault at all.

The thought of Ranger naked make me get all warm down there and I honestly thought about using the shower in the bathroom, but decided against it. Ranger can open any door. God only knows what he would do if he came back into his apartment and I was in his bathroom doing that. I don't know if I would have been able to walk after that, but in a very, very good way.

I woke up to Ranger sitting next to me on the bed, the corners of his mouth turned up, barely a smile, but I still got one.

"Having a good dream?" he asked.

Hell yes I was! I don't remember much, but I know it involved Ranger, the shower head in his bathroom and, oh God, please tell me I wasn't saying that out loud.

"A shower head?" he asked, his smile now more easy to see.

"Please tell me you're using your ESP and I didn't say anything out loud."

"Even if you didn't, you just told me you were having a sex dream me about me by answering my question." Damn, he got me there. But it was his own fault. I buried my head under a pillow.

"Did you need something, Ranger?" I asked.

"Distraction." I peeked out from under my pillow and attempted to raise my eyebrow at him, I think I was getting better at it. "I need someone to be a distraction on a take down." I groaned.

"What time is it?"

"Almost midnight. Ella brought you up a dress. Ten minutes." I crashed my head onto the pillow and had my arms spread out. This wasn't my idea of a way to spend a night. "Oh, and if you have another dream like that, you should let me know, we might be able to work something out." Now that was just cruel, and I was planning on telling him that, but before I could get my head up to say something he was gone.

I pushed the covers aside and looked at the bottom of the bed to see THE DRESS. I knew my job was distract someone in this thing, but I don't think Ranger knew just how much was going to be seen in it, and I think Ella once again underestimated my size. I grabbed it and ran to the bathroom, knowing that when Ranger says ten minutes, it usually means five minutes and twenty-seven seconds before he would be pounding on the door.

I danced out of my clothes on the way to the bathroom and put the dress on over my head before looking in one of the many mirrors. I can't deny that it was a gorgeous dress. Strapless, black, went down to about two inches below my knees, but it had a slit up the side that I could swear if I moved the wrong way my whole ass would show. I checked my legs. Thank God I shaved yesterday or there would be a fight getting me out of the bathroom. This dressed hugged everything and actually made it look like I have cleavage.

New problem. My bra. I wasn't wearing one. Mental head-slap. I can't believe I had run over to Ranger without a bra on. Smart move there. And without make-up. This was never going to work.

"Ranger!" I yelled sticking my head out the bathroom door. I could see him talking to Bobby and they both turned. "We have a problem." Bobby looked like he was about to laugh, but Ranger ignored him. "Number one, I don't have a bra, and number two, I have no make-up. I can't go out with make-out. That's like suicide on my part, I'll never be able to distract anyone." Bobby was full on laughing now and by the look on Rangers' face he didn't think it was funny.

"Check the bed, I'm sure Ella left you something." I closed the bathroom door and walked into the bedroom, which was connected. Of course, Ella had left some simple make-up and a bra. Ella needed a raise, a big one, and she needed to have someone bake her a cake. Cake is always a great gift.

I grabbed the bag of make-up and dashed back into the bathroom. I literally pushed the top of the dress down, put on the strapless bra, and then pulled it back up. I put on some clear lip gloss, applied some blush, and covered every inch of my eyelids with about ten pounds of a natural looking color eye shadow. My eyes darted around the room, finding a brush, and then I did some real quick pooffing as best I could. I surprised my hair was doing anything at all, maybe it was the brush Ranger had that made my hair look good.

I checked myself over in the mirror and damned if I didn't look hot. It was decided, my mom was going to bake a cake for Ella when all this was done. I would, but I can't cook to save my life.

All I needed now was a pair of hot shoes.

I walked out of the bathroom and Lester, who had now joined Bobby and Ranger, saw me coming first. I did my best to sway my hips and I think I did a decent job. Ranger noticed that Lester wasn't paying attention and snapped his fingers in front of Lesters' face, but it didn't work. Ranger followed his gaze and gave me the hundred-watt smile.

"Babe," I said to Ranger before he got the chance. Man, was I on my game today or what? First I'm lying like a champ to my mom, I get to the grocery store, I dealt with Morelli like we were actually human, and now I'm pretty sure that I had Ranger speechless. If it wasn't for the crazy man looking for me I would be floating around on a cloud.

Ranger cleared his throat and Bobby smacked Lester in the chest getting his attention.

"I need shoes," I said to the three of them. I was actually hoping that Bobby and Lester would scramble looking for a pair, because you can only image what that can do for a girls ego.

"Ella's bringing up a pair," Ranger said before the other two had a chance to move. Damn him ruining my fun. Ranger walked over to me and showed me a picture. "This is Edward Black. He's wanted for assault, attempted murder, among other things, so we have to be real careful about how we play this. Study the picture. Don't forget his face." Oh great, I was feeling less optimistic by the second. "We're going to have you distract him at his favorite spot and when he moves in to talk to you we're gonna grab him. Have a problem with any of that?" I shook my head no, if they were just going to wait for him to talk to me I could deal with that.

"My dear, you look beautiful." I turned and saw Ella, I gave her a big smile.

"Thank you, very much. I think a size bigger would have been a little more comfortable, though." Ella smiled at me while she handed over a pair of three inch black fuck me pumps. I think I was in love with Ella right then and there.

"Nonsense, even if you are going to be a street walker tonight, you still look beautiful doing it. Why, if it wasn't for those slits up the sides you could probably wear it to a funeral or a wedding or something along those lines." I whipped around and looked at Ranger.

"I'm going to be a what!"

I think I yelled loud enough for the people on the street to hear.


	5. Chapter 05

**Disclaimer**: I only own the one guy. Everything else is from the mind of Ms.Evanovich  
I've got myself a beta-reader kiddies, so hopefully those little grammar mistakes will start to be less and less. If you would still wanna beta-read for sometime, leave a review and let me know, it's always good to have more than one set of eyes.  
If you like, please review!  
A special thanks to all of you who have already reviewed, it's good to know someone out there likes my story!

**&&&&&**

I was sitting beside Ranger in his Turbo cursing up a storm as we drove to our destination - the corner of Stark and East State Streets. Not only was Ranger having me pretend to be a ho, but he wanted me to do it on the most dimly lit and dangerous street in the city.

I was forgetting why I liked him so much.

"Tank is only going to be ten steps behind you, max, the whole way, babe." I grunted.

"You should have asked Lula, she would have been more than happy to help you out. Besides, she has the experience." We pulled to a stop two blocks away from the the corner I was meant for.

Ranger turned in his seat so that his back was to the door and he was staring at me. "If you don't feel comfortable doing it, I'm not going to make you. It would just make things easier, seeing as you have the look this guy goes for."

I reached for the door handle. "How do you get me to do these things?" I looked back in the car quick enough to see him smirk and jog around to my side, where we were met by Tank and three equally impressive RangeMan employees.

"All you have to do is walk down to the corner and stand there. No one is going to give you a hard time, I've made sure of that." How Ranger could accomplished that is beyond me. When I first met Lula and her friend Jackie it was noon in the middle of the week and they were picking a fight with me over their corner.

"This," Ranger said holding up what looked like a square piece of paper, "is to allow us to hear what's going on. If you need help, just say so. Once Black waves you down, just make sure it's him, say his name, and we'll come in and make the bust." He looked me over and smiled. "Where would you like me to put it?"

I rolled my eyes and took the little microphone, sticking it my bra."I don't get paid enough for this." Ranger took my hands into his and looked at me.

"I didn't give you anything I wasn't sure you could handle. Just walk, look around, stick your leg out if you have to. Anyone who's not Black and approaches you will be dealt with." I just nodded my head and looked over at Tank, forcing a smile.

"You ready to go, big guy?" Tank just nodded his head. I turned to Ranger. "Maybe you should give your men a lesson in talking, it's not bad all the time." I turned back towards Tank and started making my way towards Stark Street.

Tank was walking next to me for one block, making sure that everything was clear, and then he was going to be hanging out in front of a favorite spot for depraved of Trenton - the Manor. It was a disgusting little bar where I had been once or twice to make an apprehension. I think arrest would be more appropriate here and would read better as an object noun. There was a tough crowd in there, and the whole place smelled of urine.

The next time I looked up Tank had drifted from my side to his spot and I noticed another of Rangers' guys across the street. I looked up and sighed. I didn't need to see the street signs to know I was on Stark Street. I was hoping no cops that I knew came by and saw this, because if they did they would call Morelli and all of the Burg would know that I was hanging out there in the middle of the night dressed up like I was.

My mother might drink herself into a coma.

A car started to slow in front of me. Nope, not Black. He chatted with me for a moment before one of Rangers' guys came and pulled me away, acting as if I had been waiting for him outside. Only two more cars went by in the next forty-five minutes, but several drunken man had to be taken away by Tank for getting a little bit too close. If Ranger only knew what kind of car this idiot would be driving my life would be so much easier.

I was trying to count to a million when a white Ford pick-up pulled up next to be. Grey hair? Nope. Black eyes? Nada. Smelly alcoholic in the front seat? I wish I had been that lucky. I was now looking face-to-face with Bane. He stuck his hand out to me.

"If you insist on calling me Bane, that's fine, but I think you might be more open to speaking with me if you know that my actual name is Christopher, and I'm not a bad guy." Ah, so the mysterious man had a name, not like that helped me any, he was probably making it up. "Please, tell Mr. Manoso if he wishes to try and be hidden in this area of town, he shouldn't drive such nice cars. Although, I wouldn't be surprised if he had just heard every word I said."

Yeah, well I know that Ranger just heard every word that he said, and I couldn't figure out why no one was running over to me. I thought it was pretty obvious that I was a damsel in the remove 'the' distress here.

Bane, I mean Christopher, grabbed something off his seat and tossed it out of the passenger side window and then drove off. I was staring off in the direction that he had driven off in for what I was sure was an hour, though it was probably more like twenty seconds. I bent over at the knees so not to show the world my ass, and picked up the envelope that had been tossed, and then started walking towards Ranger. Tank was now close on my heels. Ranger was out of the car and walking over to me.

"Who was that?" he asked.

"That," I said pointing towards the corner were I was before to add emphasis, "was the mystery guy who's been showing up in my apartment. You couldn't gather that from him talking about you?" I think Batman was off his game tonight, if that was even possible.

Ranger took the envelope from my hand and opened it. "Why did you call him Bane?"

"I didn't mean to say it out loud, it just sort of happened," I argued. "And Bane is one of Batman's arch-enemies. Didn't you ever read comics when you were a kid?" I leaned over to see what Ranger was looking at. "How the hell.."

But before I could finish Ranger was barking out orders and dragging me into the Turbo. He quickly put his car into gear and we were speeding towards RangeMan. He was still holding onto the picture and his knuckles were as white as I have ever seen. I, on the other hand, was having a hard time comprehending how that creep had taken a picture of me kissing Ranger outside of Vinnies' office.

So much for a capture tonight.

**&&&&&**

I woke up the next morning to a very annoying ringing in my ear. I reached over on to what I thought would have been my nightstand and found nothing but air. Then I remembered the night before and realized that I had sheets God himself probably used wrapped around me. I sat up and grabbed my phone. Morelli. Just the way I wanted to start my day.

I picked up the phone but before I could even get a word in he was talking.

"Cupcake, do you want to tell me why I woke up this morning with a picture of you kissing Ranger tapped to my front door?" Shit.

"Not really. I have a really good idea, though, why don't we pretend that never happened. Just put the picture into a shredder, go back to bed, and then wake back up. Problem solved." I could hear Morelli breathing heavy on the other end, trying his best to control his temper. Then I heard a lamp break.

"Who took this picture?"

"My mystery guy. He said his name was Christopher last night."

"How did you see him last night?"

"You probably don't want to know."

"Please tell me that it's not true you were on Stark Street last night dressed as a hooker."

"How did you know!" I knew Joe had his contacts and knew a lot of people, but I honestly thought no one would see me on Stark last night. If I did I never would have gone along with that plan. Okay, maybe I would have since Ranger asked me to. I don't understand how that man got me to do these things.

"A friend of mine was undercover and wanted to know if you had taken up a profession." I heard Bob bark in the background and could almost feel the look Joe gave him to quiet down.

"I was there with Ranger trying to make a capture."

"So let me get this straight. You go to Ranger because you don't want this creep to find you, Ranger takes you out to play dress up, and the creep finds you anyway."

"Pretty much." I dangled my legs on the edge of the bed. The smell of sausage was remove 'was' found its way to my nose and my stomach was ordering it to find the source.

"I want you to come stay at my house." Here we go. Attention ladies and gentleman, Possessive Joe has entered the building.

"Are you forgetting that we aren't dating anymore? I just don't stay at your house. Besides, this Christopher guy obviously knows where you live, so it would just be easier to get to me, since he thinks that I have some top secret information on you and Ranger. He hasn't approached me at RangeMan, only when I'm out. I'm safer here." I padded my way into the kitchen and saw Ranger eating some kind of sloppy wet mess that I guess could pass for oatmeal. I went straight for the sausage.

"And what, your dating Ranger now?" Joe sounded almost pained to ask it. Not that he needed to, he had to know the answer.

I laughed at him as I sat across from Ranger with five sausage links. I was holding out, just in case Ella came up with more breakfast, like pancakes or bacon or eggs. "No, I'm not dating Ranger." If this was dating for Ranger than I was afraid, because it was definitely not normal.

Ranger looked up at me and for the first time since I've known him he looked confused as hell. It actually made me feel a little empowered.

"Listen, Joe," I started while sticking a piece of sausage in my mouth, "I'm just going to stay at RangeMan, if that's okay with Ranger. This place is like the Batcave, no one's getting me here. Now, if you don't mind I have breakfast to get to. Oh, and don't forget, we have dinner at my parents' tonight at six."

"There is no way I'm going to dinner at your parents."

"You have to! You're my alibi!"

"Is Ranger going to be there?" I'd have to fill him in on the alibi part later, since he was more worried about Ranger at the moment. Men, sometimes they make no sense.

"Now why would Ranger go with me and you to my parents house for dinner?." Ranger just about choked on his food. "Joe, I have to go, Ranger's choking on oatmeal. Just be at my parents house before six. Please, I'm begging you. You do this and I promise I'll think about coming to stay with you at your house."

There was a beat. "See at you six."

I hung up the phone and looked over at Ranger, who was pounding his fist into his chest to regain composure. He fixed himself and I was thankful that he didn't say anything about the dating comment that Morelli had made.

I was eyeing the last piece of sausage when Ranger finally said something.

"We ran a search last night for anyone named Christopher in our system that had a connection to Morelli and me. We got a couple of hits, but no one matching the description that you gave us. I'd like you to look at some pictures anyway, just in case the guy's changed his features. None of the guys were married at the time we had incidents with them."

I stared down at my empty plate, stabbing it with a fork. "You're not going to keep me hidden in here all day, are you? Because that's not my plan."

Ranger raised an eyebrow. "What is your plan then?" He grabbed my dish and fork, his bowl and spoon, and put them in the dishwasher. I watched with moderate interest as he gave Rex a piece of apple from the counter before biting into it himself. Batman was turning into Bruce Wayne before my very eyes. "Steph? What's your plan?"

"I, uh, I'm going to go to the office and see if there are any new skips and do my basic day to day stuff."

"Not a good idea." Well I thought it was. "Somehow this guy knew that you were going to be on Stark Street, so there's only two options, since we know he didn't tail us. This guy is either very lucky or he has you bugged somehow."

"That's what I was thinking, the bug thing. I tossed out my clothes from the first time that I saw him, but the only thing I have is the bag you gave me with the stuff in it. I didn't think it was possible for someone to hi-jack your stuff. Only other thing was he had the office bugged, but that wouldn't explain how he got on Stark last night." Ranger just nodded his head.

"I'm have some business to do. One of the boys will be up here later to get you to look at the pictures and we'll get you all new stuff, just incase he does have them bugged. Until then, please, don't leave."

"Ranger, I really don't see what this guy's threat is. He's only asked me questions. Yeah, he told me he would shoot me once, but since then, nothing. I thought about this last night while we were coming back to RangeMan. He's not after me, he's after you and Morelli. Besides, I have to go home and get some decent clothes for dinner with my parents tonight." Ranger smiled, knowing the torture that Morelli was in for at dinner.

"You do realize you told Morelli you should stay here because it was safer for you?"

"Morelli worries to much. I told him that so he wouldn't try to break into RangeMan to kidnap me thinking that it was safer at his house." That's my story and I'm sticking with it.

"Just stay in here, it won't be for long. I'll be done around one. By then you should have looked at the pictures. We'll have lunch and then I'll take you back to your apartment to get something to wear since we don't want Ella to accidently bring you something like you wore last night." He enjoyed that thought way too much. Bastard.

I looked over at the clock on the microwave. Eight twenty-seven. Fabulous, only four hours and thirty-three minutes of nothing to do. Hopefully there was a ton of pictures for me to look at.

Ranger was half way to the door before he turned around and came back over to kiss me on the palm of my hand, then go and walk out the door. I couldn't help but feel like a school girl when he did that.


	6. Chapter 06

**Disclaimer**: If you knew someone before I wrote this, then I don't own this.  
Thanks to everyone who reviewed last chapter, it means a lot!  
A very special thanks to Christie (MagnificantSin) who beta-read this chapter for and caught a big mistake.

**&&&&&**

At five fifty-five I was sitting in front of my parents house with Ranger, trying my best to come up with a way to get out of this. I saw Morelli's SUV parked across the street and I knew he was already inside. Both my mother and Grandma Mazur were standing at the door waiting for me to get out and join them; it was some instinct all mothers in the Burg had that let them know their daughter was outside.

"Go get 'em, tiger," Ranger said, as I launched myself out of the car.

The plan was to walk right past my family, sit at the table, and not move until it was time to leave. I would talk as little as possible and as soon as I was done with dessert I would be back outside with Ranger and heading back to RangeMan. And as much as I liked the plan, I knew that it was never going to work.

"Is that Ranger in that car?" Grandma Mazur asked, looking around me. Today she was wearing a lime green jogging suit, a lime green sweatband on her forehead, and lime green running shoes. Her hair was done up in her perm and she had on the brightest red lipstick I had ever seen.

"Yes, that's Ranger in the car. He's just dropping me off since I'm without a car." I got passed grandma, hoping that their attention would be diverted by the fact that another car of mine was now in car heaven, but my mother was blocking my way.

"Well, why don't you invite him in for dinner?" Grandma asked.

"I'll set an extra place," my mother said. And before I could do anything the wheels were in motion.

Grandma Mazur was walking down to Ranger, mumbling something about the size of his car. My mother was in the house scrambling for an extra place setting and another chair, and Morelli was at the door, looking down at me.

"What's going on?"

"I think my family is forcing food down Ranger's throat."

Morelli tried to smile as his face got tight, and I knew he was going to say something, but I felt Ranger's hand on the back of my neck and grandma was pulling them both in the door.

Grandma Mazur moved in with my mom and dad when Grandpa Mazur left to play the big poker game in the sky. My dad used to keep a .45 in the house, but when grandma moved in my mother wisely got rid of it. Grandma and Dad didn't always get along, and on one specific occasion Grandma had moved in with me to get away from him. Most of the time I thought Grandma Mazur was a riot, then again, I didn't live with her. She was currently dragging the two men in my life into the dining room to have a family dinner.

Wait until the Burg heard about this.

I followed my family into the dining room where my dad was already sitting at the end of the table, fork and knife in hand. My mother would sit on the other end, Grandma Mazur to her left, and I would sit next to ... I had no idea.

"Ranger!" my grandmother said from her seat, waving her hand around. "Come sit next to me dear." Ranger smiled and walked over to her, taking a seat beside her.

"It would be my pleasure." I think Grandma was blushing.

I sat down across from Ranger with Joe next to me, almost afraid of the conversation that was going to happen. My mother had all the food on the table already and it was being passed around. Meatloaf with mashed potatoes, string beans, and corn. I almost fell off my seat when Ranger actually took the meatloaf.

"I thought your body was a temple?" I asked, moving my meat around in my mashed potatoes before taking a bite. Ranger smiled and ate a forkful of string beans.

"It is. Doesn't mean I can't have a good home cooked meal every once in a while."

"Let me ask you something," Grandma said looking over at Ranger. "I have a Glock, but I was thinking about getting something new. Any ideas?"

"Mary, Mother of God," my mother said crossing herself.

My father grumbled something that sounded like crazy old bat.

Joe and I just froze with our food half way to our mouths.

Ranger put a piece of meatloaf in his mouth, before whipping it off with a napkin. "The only people that should have guns are people that need them for work."

"Nonsense," Grandma said now up and rummaging around in her purse. "Everyone has a gun." She pulled hers out. "I saw something on television the other night about how this woman got mugged walking to her car from a store. She said that if she had had a gun she could have defended herself." Grandma was looking at her gun and making 'pow pow' noises as everyone just stared at her.

"For heaven's sake mother, put that thing down!" my mom yelled.

"Don't worry. I don't have in bullets in it, see?" And with that, Grandma Mazur pointed the gun into the kitchen and pulled the trigger, effectively putting a hole in the blender and the wall. "Well, isn't that a pip! I guess I did have one in there." Ranger was up, carefully taking the gun from her hands and making sure there were no more bullets in it.

Joe leaned over to me. "I could have her arrested for carrying concealed." I just glared at him.

"Grandma," I said turning my attention over to her. "Why don't we let Joe take the gun and get rid of it?" Ranger walked over to our side of the table and handed the gun to Joe, who stuck it at his ankle.

My mother cleared her throat. "There was a man here looking for you today, Stephanie. Said his name was Christopher and that he had some information on a case you were working on." Joe stiffened up, I froze, and Ranger took his seat and kept eating green beans. "He was very polite, said he had been trying to get in contact with you for a few days so I gave him your cell phone number." Perfect. "He said he went by your place last night and you weren't home."

"I went out with Joe last night. You remember, I was supposed to come over for dinner but Joe called." Ranger cut his eyes to Joe and Joe was surprised that his name was being mentioned. He gave me a look.

My mother went to open her mouth when the phone rang. Grandma was the first on the scene. After a few minutes of words we couldn't understand, we finally hear,"Well isn't that something?" She hung up the phone and made her way back to the table. We all looked at her as she sat down.

"That was your cousin Shirley, she said Eddie got home from work today and said that Stephanie was on Stark Street last night all dolled up and sticking her leg out."

"Who wants cake?" my mother asked. And before anyone could answer she was in the kitchen crossing herself and tipping. She came back in the room with chocolate cake. "Stephanie, I heard they were hiring at Macy's for make-up girls. I'm going there tomorrow, would you like me to pick-up an application?"

There was a ringing noise coming from Ranger. He looked down at his cell phone. "Excuse me," he said before disappearing towards the front door.

"I like my job, mother," I replied while taking a bit of cake. I think I was in heaven. I might have actually moaned.

"Joseph, talk some sense into her."

Joe shook his head. "I've tried."

Ranger came back into the room and sat down in his chair. Grandma Mazur was eying him the whole way. He looked over at her and smiled.

"I'll tell you, if I was twenty years younger I would be all over you." Ranger laughed. "Stephanie, you are the luckiest girl. You could have either Joseph or Ranger. Personally, I'd take you Ranger, you always look good enough to eat, but I wouldn't mind getting a piece of Joe. He has a behind good enough to sink your teeth into."

Ranger and Joe were laughing, at the same thing, at the same time. I could hardly believe it, nevermind that my grandmother just said she would like to sleep with both of them.

"Thank you, Mrs. Plum, dinner was immaculate; but I'm afraid I have to get back to work," Ranger said while standing up. He was my savior. Ranger looked back at me. "You should probably come, it involves that skip you were working on."

I nodded my heading, shoving the last piece of chocolate cake into my mouth and looked at my mother. "I really need to go and get this guy."

Grandma Mazur stood up. "Let me get my bag and I'll go with you. We'll pop a cap in the scum-bag."

"No!" Everyone screamed at the same time. My dad was still working on his cake.

**&&&&&**

Morelli, Ranger, and I were standing in front of Morelli's house, staring in disbelief. Our friendly neighborhood Christopher and delivered my skip, Kyle Montelone, to Morelli's front door. How Ranger got the call before Morelli was a mystery to me.

Montelone was wiggling around the cement steps, hands and feet bound together behind him, gag in his mouth, and bare assed. I walked myself over to Ranger's truck and leaned on it watching the commotion.

The police had been there when we arrived. The neighbors called when they saw a suspicious man leave another man on Morelli's porch. At least Joe could rely on his neighbors to watch his back. People break into my apartment all the time and no one seems to notice.

Ranger walked over to me, standing much like I was, arms crossed. "Tank is going to take him down the station for you." I nodded my head. "Morelli is going to take you back to RangeMan. I'm going to stay here and talk to some of the neighbors."

I snorted. "These neighbors won't talk to you, you look like your from the CIA or something."

"That's the point."

"Is Morelli going to stay at RangeMan?"

Ranger shook his head no. "He's just going to make sure you have everything you need in one of the apartments." My stomach did a flip-flop and I guess it showed on my face.

"I'm not that awful of a roommate, am I?"

"Babe, you honestly think I would let Morelli in my apartment?" Point taken.

"Ready to go, Cupcake?" Morelli asked as he got next to us.

I looked over at Ranger. "Sure." Ranger pulled me close to him and kissed the top of my head, then disappeared to question people.

"What was that?" Morelli asked as we got into his truck.

"Nothing." The truth was, I didn't know myself. More and more lately Ranger had been doing little things like that and the truth was that I was getting more confused each time he did something.

The ride to RangeMan was quiet. I couldn't decide if Morelli was angry or confused or what, but knowing him he was at least trying to figure out who this guy was. He had his cop face on and I knew I would get nowhere by just looking at him. Apparently the cops hadn't gotten much information out of the neighbors and Christopher was driving a different car then I had seen the night before.

We got the gates of the RangeMan building and I dug out the keys so that I could open the gate. The trip up to one of the apartments was the same. Lester had met us at the elevators to tell me which apartment I was going to be using and then he disappeared, taking the stairs up instead of the elevator.

We got to my apartment and opened the door with the key that I had been given. I flipped on the light switch and placed my keys in the same silver dish on the sidebar as Ranger had and took a look around. The room was done in a dark hunter green. The couch, carpeting everything dark and beautiful. I would have loved to have this apartment all to myself, but not when Ranger was three floors up. I would much rather be there.

I went into the kitchen and opened the fridge. I wasn't exactly hungry, but I knew that I needed comfort food. Obviously Ella had been notified that I would be using the room and had stocked my fridge full of the essentials - TastyKakes, beer, grapes and carrots for Rex (who had been moved onto my counter) and what looked to be Pino's. I looked in the freezer after grabbing a beer and saw Ben and Jerry's and ice cream cake.

I felt Morelli's arms encircle my waist and I leaned myself back against him, my head resting on his chest. He kissed my neck and I sighed. His hands began to move up my stomach and find their way under my shirt, resting lightly on my chest when I turned around, staring Joe in the eyes. They were chocolate brown, never a good sign for me. Well, it could be a good sign depending on what type of mood I was in.

"Cupcake."

"Joe."

"I think we should try this again. I still care about you. I still think about you. I still worry about you."

I sighed again, but this time because of the direction this conversation was going. If Joe had just kept moving his hands and shut his mouth there would probably be sex going on, but he didn't do that. I don't know why suddenly I was willing to sleep with Joe again. Maybe it was from the events of my latest stalker, I still at times felt safe wrapped up in Joes' arms. Maybe it was the fact that we were in the RangeMan building and I knew if Ranger ever found out heads would probably roll. I was hoping that it was the first maybe, but I had a feeling it was the more the second. I think I might have had a death wish. Or I was subconsciously trying to make Ranger jealous.

"We're not having this conversation, Joe. We both know what happens. You freak out over my job and develop some new disease. I scream at you for wanting me to be what every other woman in the Burg is, and we can't get past that. Until you can understand that I'm not giving up my job to be a housewife, there's nothing more we can do." I leaned up and kissed Joe on the lips lightly, surprised that he would let me. "I meant it when I said I loved you Joe, you know how hard that was for me. But I can't be in a relationship when all we do is fight."

"Even if there's really good sex involved?" he asked looked down at me with that look in his eyes and a smirk on his face. Pig.

"No, not even if really good sex was involved."

Joe leaned down and kissed me on my cheek. "Call me if you need anything."

And with that he turned and walked away. I was amazed that that conversation and seemed to be civilized. That never happened, usually there's fighting over the topic of our relationship. Maybe this meant that we were both growing up a bit.


	7. Chapter 07

Thanks so much to everyone that has been reviewing! I'm sorry that's it has taken me this long to start writing again, but hopefully I'm back now (thanks to the help of _Lean Mean Thirteen_)! I have a really good idea of where this story is going to go. I haven't decided if it's going to involve spoilers for the new book, but if it does I'll be sure to let everyone know!  
This chapter isn't my longest or my best, but I thought I had hit a good place to end the chapter. The next one should be expected either Sunday night or early Monday morning. I just have to give it the finishing touches and then it will be good to go.  
-**Amy Lynne**

* * *

After Joe had left I finished my beer, put my ice cream away, dropped Rex a few grapes, took a shower, and climbed into bed. The sheets were nice, the room was nice, everything was nice, but it would have been nicer in Ranger's room. 

I didn't wake up until the next morning. And when I say morning, I mean it was 6AM. Ranger must be wearing off on me. I dragged myself out of bed and heard Rex running in his wheel. My eyes were still closed, so I attempted to just follow the noise, determined to get some coffee into my system. Trouble was, I didn't know the layout of the apartment, and instead ended up slamming my knee right into an end table.

"Babe."

My eyes peaked open while I leaned over and rubbed my knee. Great, I just made an ass out of myself in front of Ranger ... again. This did explain what I was doing awake, though. My Ranger-senses must have been tingling.

I hobbled over to the kitchen where he was standing and sat myself down at the table, letting my forehead rest on it. I heard the coffee starting to brew and was feeling more awake by the minute. I heard the coffee maker stop, Ranger pouring a cup, and placing it in front of me.

I didn't move, that required energy, and I still didn't have enough.

"Babe?"

"Just give me a minute," I said. "I don't have enough energy."

I still didn't have my eyes open, they had magically shut when I put my head down on the table, but I could tell that Ranger was behind me. I felt him lift my head up with one hand on each side. Still not open. What the hell? Why was I not awake yet? You would think I didn't just have a nights full of uninterrupted sleep.

"Come on, Babe. Drink the coffee. I got a lead on your stalker and we're going to go investigate."

I propped my left eye open and stared.

"At six in the morning? Couldn't this wait an hour?" Ranger was just staring at me now.

"It's one in the morning, Steph. Come on, I need you on you're toes. You're the only one who can positively ID this guy, can't afford to have you fall asleep on him." Wait. What? How was it one? Ranger must have seen the confused look on my face, because he started laughing, letting me get a glimpse of the 100-watt smile. "Your clock must be wrong. Someone must have forgot to reset it. When an apartment isn't in use, nothing is plugged in. Wastes energy and costs money."

"That makes sense, I guess." I took a sip of the coffee. Oh yes, I could already feeling the caffeine hit me. Caffeine was an amazing thing.

"There's clothes in the dresser in the bedroom. I'll be back in a half-hour, so shower quick. I have to go talk to Tank. I'll be back." He pushed himself up from the counter that he was leaning on and left the apartment. It took me a moment, however, to realize exactly what was said, and then I was scrambling towards the bathroom.

**&&&&&**

I was sitting in Ranger's Turbo, him at the wheel, as we made our way towards the highway. I had a million questions that I wanted to ask, but knowing Ranger he would only tell me when I needed to know. I was trying to keep everything contained inside, but I was getting antsy. We had only been on the road for fifteen minutes, and I was already busting at the seems wanting to talk.

We got off 295 and were now on 195, heading towards Six Flags, Belmar, and the Turnpike. Maybe my stalker was thought to be working at Six Flags, and they could convince someone to let me on Batman: the Ride. Or maybe we were heading towards New York City, where I could sneak into the Conan O'Brien show and meet Mighty Max Weinberg. Or maybe we were heading towards Belmar, or better yet, Asbury Park. No matter how bad the area around Asbury gets, I love it there. I love the Convention Center, I love the Stone Pony, I love where the Palace and Tilly used to be, and I love cranking up some Springsteen for the drive down. Not to mention the beach. No one is ever on it, especially this time of night. The thought of getting to see the beach sent me over the edge and I cracked.

"Where are we heading?" Ranger looked over at me, then back to the road, his face blank. I should have known that was going to happen, but I had to try anyway.

We drove another fifteen minutes before getting off the Freehold exit. Apparently we were going to any of the places I wanted.

"Is he in Freehold?" I asked. Hey, maybe I'd get lucky.

"No." That was it. One word. I swear, I'm going to teach him how to have a proper conversation one day.

"Oh. Then where is he?"

"Got a lead on someone who thinks they know him. Says he's from Toms River. Got an address." Toms River? Yes! I might be able to look at the beach yet. Any beach at night is an awesome thing, and I loved sitting on the sand, just looking at the moon reflect in the water. "We won't be going over the bridge into Seaside, Babe. Sorry to disappoint."

"Why not? Have you ever seen the beach at night?"

"Of course." I sighed.

"Well, if we're going to Toms River, why did we take the highway? You should have just taken 571 the whole way."

We were sitting at a light, waiting for a few cars to pass us so that we could make a right.

"This is 571, Babe. Don't like driving through Allentown. Cops there don't appreciate it when you speed, and I'd be begging for the attention." Well ain't that the truth? I got a ticket for doing 26mph in a 25mph zone once, those bastards. "Tank, Lester, and Bobby went ahead of us. They should be closing in on the house in question now, making sure it's secure before you get there. They find anyone, they are going to hold them so we can ask some questions."

"And what if he's not there? We drove all this way just to turn around when you could have have waited for their call or had the guys wait."

"Couldn't risk him figuring out we were coming and running. He'll be there, Babe."

I looked to my left as we passed the group of Russian churches, one of my favorite parts of the drive down the shore, at least to this beach. I was starting to fell tired again, but I was forcing myself to stay awake. There was a lot more to this situation then I was being told, I was sure of it. I knew that I would never get the truth of Ranger or Joe. I was going to have to start putting things together myself.

Ranger was either working on saving some starving children in Ethiopia, saving Trenton from Two Face and Catwoman, or something else that he would never tell me about. Joe was working on something for Vice that was causing him to be gone a lot. What if Joe was trying to become Robin and this Christopher was really the Riddler? Hmmm. The thought of Joe in tights threatened to send me into giggles, but I was saved by Ranger's cell phone ringing.

"Yo." Pause. "Thanks." Ranger hung up his phone and pulled over to the side of the road. "Guys not there." He started to turn the car around.

"Wait!" Ranger looked up at me.

"We're not going to the beach."

"Ranger!"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Why not?" Ranger sighed.

"I have other things I could be doing."

"Then meet up with the Merry Men and you ride back with them while I go to the beach." Ranger laughed and shook his head.

"Babe, there's not a chance in hell I'm letting you out of my sight at the moment. Not with this guy still running around."

"So then we're going to the beach?"

"No."

"Ranger! I'm not getting this close to the beach and then not going to see it. No way. Not going to happen. You dragged me out of bed and brought me here. You didn't wait for the Merry Men to call and say if the guy was in town or not. We're going to the beach."

"What do I get out of the deal?" Ranger's eyes had gone black as he looked up with me, and he was speaking dangerously low.

Oh no, very bad. Very, very bad. I swallowed my spit hard and sat there for a moment, trying to think of something to say. I had to be careful with my words. I started playing with the zipper on my hoodie, trying to distract myself. I knew I had to say something. Ranger could sit here all night and not say a word. Me, on the other hand, would go nuts from the silence in about a minute.

"You get to see the beach?" Ranger smiled. I was getting a lot of smiles lately, something was definitely up.

"I can see the beach anytime. What are we going to do on the beach?"

"Sit?"

"Babe."

"Ranger, I'm not planning on doing anything besides sitting on the beach. Not a thing. Just going to see there and look at the water. Yep. That's it. Nothing more, nothing less." Can you tell I was rambling? "Then after I'm done sitting, I'm going to stand up and walk off the beach, get back into the Turbo, and have you drive me back to RangeMan, where I'm going to go back to my apartment and put on pajamas and go back to sleep." I did a little happy dance inside at the fact that I said I was staying at my apartment at RangeMan, and not in his.

Ranger put the car back into gear and turned around, heading in the opposite direction of the beach.

"I'll bring you to the beach another night, Babe, but not tonight. I don't want to risk this guy being out there somewhere. There's a million places he could hide along the boardwalk. I promise, as soon as you don't have this stalker after you, we'll come down to the beach at night."

"Why would you do that?" Ranger just looked at me. "You're promising (promise being a key word here) that you are going to engage in an activity with me that does not involve sex or work." Ranger looked quickly at the road and then back at me. He was giving me an almost blank face, but I swear I could see some confusion on there. "You don't do that. We don't really hang out, Ranger. That's not us."

"What is us, then?"

Woah. What is going on here?! I just sat there, staring at Ranger like he had six heads. I'm sure I must have looked pretty funny, but he didn't laugh at me, which was good. If it had been Joe, he would had to pull over he was laughing at me so hard. I didn't feel like a complete idiot.

"I think you would be the better person to answer that question. You're the one who doesn't do relationships." I looked away from him and out the window. I knew I shouldn't have said that, I was already beating myself up. Any second now I was going to get the wrath of Ranger for being a smart ass.

"You're always a smart ass, I'm not going to ship you off anywhere." Damn ESP. "You're too much fun to ship off anywhere. The worst I could do would be to tie you to my bed for a few days." Gulp. This conversation needed to change direction and fast. I wasn't any good at this semi-sexual-conversation game.

"You can do that when I get to see the Batcave." Who the hell said that? That wasn't me, was it? Please dear God, if you are listening, don't let that have been me. I would rather have my ex-husband, Dickie Orr, hiding in the backseat then to have that be me. Ranger looked over at me and smiled.

"Deal." Shit.


	8. Chapter 08

**Note from Amy Lynne**: Ahhh, I know, I know, I said I would have this up by Monday! So sorry, I was sucked into Transformers by my brothers (not that I'm complaining, I grew up with it, too). Then I realized that I have four Harry Potter costumes to make before Tuesday and went a bit nutso. (Don't hate on my nerdiness!) But don't worry, I'm going to make it up to you. You may be asking yourself, how Amy, how are you planning on doing that? Well, not only do I have this chapter written, but the next two as well. Haha! I have a friend of mine looking over the next chapter as we speak, so that should be up sometime today. Chapter 10 will probably be up sometime tomorrow (tonight if we're all lucky). There's some good things coming up!  
I just have to say that I reallllly really like this chapter. XDD I know, I'm biased because I wrote it, but I usually don't like anything I write, so yeah.  
Also, I know I said that I have the basic idea of what's going to happen all planned out, but if there's something that you want to see, I'm very open to suggestions. Just leave a comment either as feedback, or e-mail (with TGW as the subject), or any of the other contact info that I have on my page. The more feedback that I get the more I'm going to want to update.  
**Disclaimer**: _I'm just playing with Janet Evanovich's characters._ She was nice when I met her and I don't think she'll mind. She should have told me where the RangeMan building is supposed to be, though. XDD

* * *

Ranger and I sat in silence (as usual) while we drove down 571 to get back towards the highway. It was dark, there were lots of trees around, no street lights, and I was starting to feel like I had to pee. I should hold it. I really didn't want to have to leave the comfort of the Turbo to go squat in a bush, especially not with Ranger present. I would rather pee myself. The problem was, the longer we sat in silence, the more I found nothing else to focus on other than the fact that I had to pee. Not good. 

"So," I said looking over at Ranger. Still in the zone. One hand on the wheel, the other at the side of his face as he leaned towards the car door while driving. "How long have we known each other?" Ranger looked over at me. I swear, for a moment I thought I saw him shrug.

"A few years now." I nodded my head and looked out the window.

"What's your favorite color?" And now I was getting the crazy person look. "It's just that, if we've known each other a while, it seems that I should know you favorite color." Still just staring at me. "I would think it's black, but I could be wrong." Ranger looked back to the road. "I like blue. There's lots of different shades, and I like them all. Makes me think of summer."

"Babe?"

"Yeah?"

"You're rambling." I nodded my head.

"Yeah, I know. But if I talk then I don't think about how much I have to pee. If we went to the shore we wouldn't have this problem."

"I thought we settled this?" Oh boy, I don't want to annoy Ranger. Backtrack, Stephanie, backtrack!

"Oh, we did, I'm just ... making conversation."

Silence, again. We were passing the Russian churches for a second time, and the light where we would be turning to get onto the highway was coming up. I didn't have to pee as much, maybe the thought of having to pee in front of Ranger was making my body work backwards.

I reached down onto the floor of the Turbo and picked up my bag, digging around in it and searching for my cell phone. I wouldn't tell people this, but the woods at night sort of creep me out. I've probably seen one too many horror movies, but I always feel better knowing that I have cell phone reception, which I didn't. I knew I wouldn't, I've been down to Seaside every summer since I've been alive, by the time that I was six I could have walked there and home and not get lost (not that I would), so I knew that reception in this area was a big no.

We reached the light and waited for it to turn. I was half expecting Ranger to ask what I was doing and why, but I figured he probably knew that I didn't like the woods at night. Just another thing about being Batman, you know everything. At least I didn't have to launch into an embarrassing story about when I was a kid and tried to "run away" during a camping trip. That would be bad. I don't need Ranger knowing another story like that. Hell, him knowing about Zorro is bad enough.

My eyes drifted from staring at my phone and hoping that the Gods were shining down and would give me a signal when a tractor-trailer pulled up behind us. This idiot still had his high beams on and I was going to go blind. Jerk.

Wait, how did a truck that size sneak up behind us? I looked over at Ranger and saw that he was staring intently into the rear view mirror. He inched the Turbo up a few inches. The truck moved closer to us.

Living in Jersey means driving in Jersey, and once you do that you will realize that we are a different breed of people. Our favorite hobby is road rage. My two biggest driving pet peeves are morons who leave the high beams on and fuckers who come right up to your bumper at a red light. I turned slightly in my seat to check out the truck but all I could see was the grill right us. I felt like I was in a Wes Craven movie.

"He probably won't see if I gave him the finger, would he?" I kept my eyes trained on the truck.

"Wouldn't be a good idea, Babe." The light turned green and Ranger started driving. I was a bit surprised we didn't go left, back the way we came. "Going straight will take us to the highway too. We'll just be by Jackson Outlets." I nodded. Jackson Outlets is amazing, not as good as Jersey Gardens as fall as malls are concerned, but since it was an outlet strip mall and not a real mall, it made sense. Ranger should consider himself lucky that it was the middle of the night and the stores were closed.

We reached the intersection for the mall and, of course, could see the jerk in the semi coming up behind us.

Before I knew what was happening, I heard Ranger mumble 'Shit' and try to turn the car left into the shopping center against the light, and the trailer had hit the back end of the Turbo. The car started to spin and I grabbed the oh-shit-bar (at least that's what I call it, what the hell are those bars there for if not to hold on when something like this happens?!) and screamed my head off. I started making promises to God, saying I would go to church and not abuse shower heads if Ranger and I were both fine. I pretty sure God knew I was lying about the church part, but I guess he was willing to see if I would follow through on the shower heads, because Ranger got control of the car, and with screeching tires, finally got us to stop.

I looked around quick. No truck.

Ranger was out of the car in a flash, at my door, and pulling me out of the Turbo. I saw the back end, or what was left of it. Complete smashed. I saw the bumper lying in a ditch across the road. The driver side back tire was gone (no idea where it could be), rear window was smashed, and the the back was compacted to half it's side.

"That fucker hit us," I finally managed to get out.

Ranger was standing, hands on his hips, and shaking his head. "I liked that car."

Huh?

"That's all you're going to say, I like that car? Ranger, he hit your side! You could have been killed!"

"Couldn't turn right. Nowhere to go and he would have hit your side of the car."

"Couldn't you have gone straight?" He stood, looking at me for a moment.

"Babe."

Either I was completely missing logic on him taking the hit or Batman actually didn't think about running the light and going straight. I'm going with the first option. Ranger thinks of everything. I was staring at the car. I liked the Turbo, too. Nice leather seats, smooth riding, and it always smelled of Bulgari.

"We got a problem." I turned my head towards Ranger. When the hell did he get on his cell phone? I looked down at mine (how exactly did I manage to keep that in my hands?) and saw that reception was back. Of course it was, we were once again in civilization. "Steph and I were just involved in a car accident. Semi hit the back drivers side. Turbo's toast. How far out?" Ranger just nodded his head and hung up the phone.

"I doubt the Merry Men can see you nodding over the phone."

"Tank will be here in fifteen. He's making arrangements to get the Porsche moved. We need to get off the road, go stand stand by one of the shops and in the light." Ranger walked to me and grabbed my arm, pulling me in the direction of the stores.

"Wait!" I pulled myself from his grasp. I pretty sure that he let me. I went to the passengers side door and started digging around in my purse. I found a small pack of tissues and pulled a few out before going and attempting to tie them together on the antenna of the car. "You should put the flashes on." Ranger just stared. "You could get a ticket for just leaving the car here! If you put the white on the antenna you won't be in trouble as long as you call it into the local police station!"

"Babe, we're not calling this in. The car will be gone before the police get here." I should have known he was going to say something like that.

"How is Tank getting here in fifteen minutes?" I asked. I thought it was a good question. Having an idea how far away we were from where Tank was and how far ahead of him of him we must be once we turned around made me know that he wasn't that close. "He's going to have to do a 100mph to get here that fast. He'll run every light in town. He'll get a hundred tickets when he gets caught on the camera thingie's that are up! And what if a cop tries to pull him over? Is he supposed to just keep driving until he gets here?"

"Babe, a semi-truck just slammed into us on purpose. We could have been killed if he hit the car at a different angle, and your worried about Tank getting some speeding tickets?"

Well, no. Mostly I was purchasing my pass into Denial Land and was rambling about anything that came to mind. Worrying about Tank seemed like a much better alternative at the moment than admitting that I was almost, once again, killed. When this news got back to Trenton (and I was sure it would, somehow) someone at TPD was going to win a lot of money. Last I heard from Big Dog was that when I was going to destroy the Turbo was bringing in some big money. How I was going to destroy was worth even more. I knew that the accident wasn't my fault, but I doubt anyone there would care. The Turbo was done with.

Ranger walked over to me and took the remaining tissues from my hand before pressing them against my forehead.

"What are you doing?"

"You're bleeding." Shit, I was? When the hell did that happen?

I quick looked over Ranger. Once again he looked fine, but who knows with Batman. Sometimes it's hard to see through the Batsuit and get a look at what's underneath.

Ranger put his hand on the small of my back and started guiding me towards the entrance of the outlets.

"You know I'm not really Batman, right." I turned to look at him as we reached the poll holding up the traffic light. I really, really, really need to stop talking out loud. Hopefully my wishes to God were kept in my head.

"When I was little Valerie used to calling me. Teff." Ranger just gave me a look. To most people they would think it was a blank stare, but I knew that as the 'what the hell are you going on about now' look. "She called me that for years, even when the rest of my family stopped, she called me Teff until she was out of high school." Still just getting the look. "My point is, it was a nickname, one that took a really long time for me to grow out of. Even if I stopped calling you Batman, Lula and Connie would call you that. It's stuck. And why I may have had a glimpse of Bruce Wayne, you going to have to suck it up and deal with the fact that Batman is not going away."

Ranger just nodded his head and gently started pushing me to move again.

Ha! I was sneaky, I never admitted that I didn't think he was Batman. I was pretty sure that he wasn't, but he still had a lot of Batman-like qualities, and until they were explained, I wouldn't know for sure.

"And what exactly do I do that's Batman-like?" Shit, I just said that out loud, didn't I? Maybe I should ask God to help me stop that if I promised not to buy any new shoes for a month.

I opened my mouth to answer (what I was going to say, I had no idea) when a large black SUV pulled up behind the Turbo. Saved by the Merry Men.

"How did they get here so fast?" I asked. Ranger just smiled.

"Boss," Tank said as he got to us. For a big guy he sure could move fast and quietly. Tank nodded at me. "You alright, Bombshell?"

"Did you fly here?" Tank stared. Ranger laughed.

"We're fine. Stephanie has a cut on her head. Nothing serious. Didn't get a plate number. Got on 195 heading towards Belmar." Tank nodded again, and turned towards the second and third SUV's that were pulling up. Where the hell did they all come from? Ranger said that he only had three men go down to the house. These cars were packed. "Tank called the local back up." Ranger explained.

We were at the SUV that Tank pulled up in and Ranger opened the passenger side door and gave me a hand in.

"Lester is going to take you back to RangeMan. When you get there, call Morelli and let him know to keep an eye open for any semi that looks like it's about to hit him. That would probably hurt more than you in the Buick."

"Was that a joke?" I heard Lester open the drivers side door and hop in.

"Babe." Ranger closed the door and jogged over to Tank. I thought I heard something about sending one car in the same direction as the semi to see if it was still on the highway, but I wasn't sure because Lester took that moment to start the SUV. I gave him the best Burg glare I could muster.

"Eavesdropping isn't nice, Bomber." I gave him a half-assed smile as he started to move the car in the direction of the highway.

We drove down 195 in silence. We got off our exit towards downtown. Lester weaved his way in and out of streets until we reached ours and used his keypad to get into the garage. Before I could unbuckle my seatbelt, Lester had the car off and had jogged over to my side and had the door open.

"Want me to make sure you get to the seventh floor okay?"

"I think I'll be fine. Not like anyone can penetrate the Batcave, right?" Lester laughed as we started to walk towards the elevators.

"I thought the Batcave was were Ranger lived?" How the hell did he know that? I gave him a look. "Lula tells Tank things. Tank tells the guys."

"So you're all like a group of teenage girls?"

"Not quite." I sighed.

"I've been thinking about the Batcave. Batman does all his Batman duties and has all his Batman toys in the Batcave. Wayne Manor, though, is where Bruce Wayne lives. I've decided Ranger lives at Wayne Manor. He's been more Bruce Wayne there than Batman."

"Haven't the bad guys gotten into and destroyed the Batcave before?" I looked over at Lester has he hit the button for the elevator. We got in and he pushed the button for the fifth floor.

"I'm ignoring that fact." The elevator stopped and Lester got off.

"Call if you need anything." I gave him a finger wave as the doors closed.

I stood there for a few seconds like an idiot waiting for the elevator to move when I realized that I left everything (my purse, stun gun, keys, cell phone- and I don't even know when I dropped that) in the wrecked Turbo. I groaned. All I really wanted was to get some sleep in Rangers heavenly sheets.

I hit the button for five and the doors immediately opened, seeing as it hadn't moved. I walked out and looked for Lester. Nowhere to be found. Great, just great. I saw Hector sitting over at one of the monitors. Maybe I would get lucky and he would know where Lester was. And maybe he would understand what I was saying.

I smiled as I tapped him on the shoulder and he turned in his chair to look at me.

"Do you know where Lester is?" He pointed towards the door leading towards the hallway with conference rooms. "Thanks."

I turned and walked towards the door and swung it open, and heard a thud. I quickly sneaked to the other side towards the hallway and looked.

Lester was on the floor, knocked out cold. Another Merry Man out of action thanks to Stephanie Plum, the Bombshell Bounty Hunter.

I looked up towards the ceiling and flapped my arms at my sides. Why me?

I felt bad for Lester, just lying there. If I could move him, I would, but I doubt that was going to happen. Instead I bent down and searched his pockets coming up with his cell phone. Ranger was going to love this. I wouldn't be surprised if the guys started taking bets on which Merry Man I was going to take out next.

I punched in Rangers number, it rang once.

"Talk."

"Hi," I said. Real smooth, Stephanie, real smooth.

"Babe? What's wrong?"

"Nothing, really." Best to start with the easier news to take first. That way at least I had a place to sleep before Ranger showed up and shipped me off somewhere for knocking out another one of his men. "I left my purse and everything that goes in it in the Turbo. I don't have a key to your apartment, so I was wondering where I should sleep."

"Have Lester call Ella, she'll let you in."

"Yeah, about Lester... there's a problem with Lester." Ranger didn't say anything for a beat.

"What kind of problem?"

"I sorta knocked him out."

"Babe." He was amused.

"I swear, I didn't mean to! I just opened a door which he happened to be on the other side of and he just went down."

"Where is he now?"

"Lying in the middle of the hallway with the conference rooms."

"You never disappoint, Babe." I scowled at the phone. "Have you seen anyone else there?"

"Just Hector." This time I could swear I heard Ranger laugh.

"Put him on the phone."

"Hold on." I opened the door as best I could again and squeaked through, before walking back over to Hector. I tapped him on the shoulder again, he turned again. I held out the phone. "Ranger." If they could talk in one word sentences, so could. Ha!

Hector took the phone and started talking in Spanish with Ranger. I swear one of these days I was going to learn it, that way I could know what they were saying. Even better, maybe I would learn a different language that they didn't know and talk about them right in front of them. Maybe Welsh. I had a friend in elementary school who's grandmother spoke it. I used to go over there after school and her grandmother would talk to me in it, like I knew what she was saying. I remembered my friends mother always blushing and yelling at the grandmother whenever she spoke in Welsh, so I had a feeling this grandmom was a lot like my Grandma Mazur. Knowing my luck, though, Ranger had a Merry Man on staff that spoke it, and I would be saying something highly inappropriate and would get busted.

I was knocked out of my fantasy by Hector handing the phone back to me.

"Hector is going to call Ella and have her take you up. Don't worry about Lester, he'll be fine." It always amazed me that Ranger could tell when I got back on the phone. "Take Lester's cell phone with you. Call Morelli with it when you get to the apartment. I'll bring your stuff back with me." I saw Hector getting on his phone.

"And when are you going to be back?"

"Not sure. You get some sleep. It's almost five in the morning. Ella will leave her number with you, so whenever you wake up, just call her and she'll bring you up some breakfast." I nodded my head. "I thought people weren't supposed to be able to tell when someone was nodding over the phone." I had to smile.

"Maybe people who aren't superheroes."

"Babe." And then he hung up.

I stood there for a few moments, staring at the phone. I didn't expect him to say anything else, but it would have been nice. Ella walked into the room and smiled at me.

"I'll take you up now, dear. I'm sure you had a long night." I smiled at her as she pushed the button for the elevator, which opened and we stepped on.

"I appreciate this. I hope you weren't woken up." Ella pushed the keypad so that we could ride up to the seventh floor.

"I usually get up around this time, so it was no trouble." I took in what she said.

Then it hit me all at once.

I started bouncing up and down, and shifting my weight from foot to foot. The elevator doors opened and Ella looked at me worried for a moment, before walking over to the door to Ranger's apartment and starting to open it.

"Is everything alright, dear?" I shook my head like a madwoman.

"Yeah, I just remembered that I have to pee."


	9. Chapter 09

**Disclaimer**: I don't own, I just play with.  
**Note from Amy Lynne**: See, I promised another chapter today and it happened! I noticed a few people have been asking for confirmation on whether or not this is a Babe or a Cupcake story, and quite honestly, I never actually planned for it to be either. I just sort of started writing it one day. Since I'm a Ranger-girl myself, a lot seems to tend to go towards him. I really just wanted this to be a lot like the books, where Stephanie is with both guys during the story and whatnot, but looking at my outline, I don't know if that's going to happen. It's pretty one-sided (I'm not going to say with who, but I'm sure you can guess).

* * *

When I woke up it was nearly noon. I rolled over out of Ranger's bed and made my way into the bathroom. I happened to catch a look at myself in the mirror and shrieked. I looked like hell in a hand basket. I quickly stripped my clothes and and stepped into the shower. 

I let the hot water wash over me. Taking a shower always made me feel better and it gave me time to think about what was going on.

This stalker, Christopher, had gone from just wanting information on Morelli and Ranger to nearly killing Ranger and me. He made the jump fast. I couldn't figure out what had changed in the last day and a half that would make him decide that it was time to change his way of going about this. I had been with Ranger, most of the time. I'd been with Joe for a little bit. There was a lot of time for both of them unaccounted for. I really needed to figure out what type of case Joe was working on, maybe that would give me some clues. I knew that Ranger tends to help out the TPD and I wouldn't be surprised if they both happened to be working on something that was related.

Joe. Shit. I never called him to warn him about the killer truck driver.

I hopped out of the shower, wrapped a towel around myself and ran back into the bedroom. I was dressed in record time. I grabbed Lester's cell phone of the end table and called Eddie Gazzara. I figured I would pump him for information and then I would ask him to connect me over to Joe.

"Gazzara."

"Eddie, it's Stephanie."

"Hey, Steph. What's going on?"

"I need a favor."

"That's never good." He laughed at me. Good thing me and Eddie go way back or I probably would have been pissed.

"I need to know what case Joe is working on."

"Shit, Steph. Joe's boss doesn't even know what Joe is working on."

"I can make it worth it if you do some digging around."

"How worth it?"

"Has news gotten around the about what happened last night?" I knew that would get him.

"What happened last night?" Hook, line, and sinker.

"Let's just say, as long as it's kept quiet for the next day or so, I can tell you what's going to happen to the Turbo."

Eddie was silent for a minute. He was probably trying to figure out how long the news of me being present for the destruction of Ranger's Porsche could be kept a secret. Nothing is a secret in the Burg. Everyone knows everyone else's business. Gossip is the fuel that keeps people running. Well, that and the funeral homes.

"What happened to the Porsche?"

"Let's just say it didn't happen in Trenton and the cops weren't informed of it, so as long as you give me your word that you'll look into what Joe's doing, I'll wait to drop the bomb to Mary Lou and Connie. You know once they find out everyone will know about it."

"You got my word. Now what happened to the Porsche."

"Me and Ranger were coming back from Toms River and it got hit by a semi. There's no back to it anymore." Eddie started laughing.

"That's great. I can't wait to place that bet in."

"Well you better do it quick. If you wait people will wonder. Now, can you connect me to Joe?"

"Wait, you're going to tell Morelli about this? Shit, he's going to be freaking out and then everyone is going to know something happened."

"I'll make him promise not to tell. I'll tell him to leave the station."

After some convincing Eddie finally connected me to Joe. He wasn't at his desk. That made me a bit happy. Maybe then he wasn't at the station and it would be easier for Eddie to collect his money later. If he was smart he was placing his bet right now.

I hung up the cell phone and dialed Morelli's cell.

"Morelli."

"Hey, Joe."

"Cupcake."

"Listen, there's something I need to talk to you about. Are you at home?"

"Yeah, why? Are you going to come over?" Not in a million years. I was never going to hear the end of it with this one.

"No, I just thought it would be easier for Eddie to collect his money in a few days if you weren't at the station and wouldn't freak out in front of everyone. Probably best if you act like nothing is wrong until the news hits." There was silence for a few beats.

"Shit, Steph, what car did you blow up?"

"I swear it wasn't my fault!"

I got off the bed and walked out into the kitchen. The longer I was awake the more hungry I realized I was. I couldn't call Ella while I was on the phone with Joe, so maybe I would get lucky and Ranger would having something that I could munch on until then. If I was staying at the apartment, Ella had to have brought something up. I looked in the freezer. Yes! They had moved my ice cream cake up here.

"Ranger and I were checking out information that this newest stalker was in Toms River. He wasn't. On the way back we got hit by a semi and the Turbo is done for."

Joe started mumbling to himself. I started cutting myself a piece of cake.

"And you told Eddie this information, why?" Oh, shit. He knew something was up. Joe knew that I hated the fact that the police bet on what I was going to destroy next, so the fact that I had given Eddie inside information on what to bet on had sent his cop-radar off. I should have known better to mention that.

"He called in a favor. Said things had been dull lately and wanting to know if I was hiding something." That wasn't a total lie. And as long as it wasn't a total lie I'm sure I could make it sound not as bad if I was called on it later.

"If the guys find out that you told him this they are going to have both your heads."

"I know." I took a bite of ice cream cake. "Which is why you need to act like everything is okay, but I thought that you might want to be on the look at in case you see a semi. It got on 195 heading towards Belmar, but if it was after Ranger and me, then there's a chance that the someone is after you, too."

That was the complete truth. I would hate it if Joe got hurt. I couldn't help it, I still cared about him. Who knows, even after all the shit that's said and happened between, no matter how many times we break up and how 'final' they may seem, something always brings us back to each other. It could be our history, it could be the fact that we love each other, or it could be that we're both incredibly stupid.

"What did the semi look like?" Now what kind of question was that. Like I had time to check it out while it was hitting the car. I'm lucky I didn't pee myself.

"Optimus Prime."

"Cupcake, this isn't a joking matter."

"I know, Joe. I didn't really get a look at it. All I saw was the grill and next thing I know, bam! The cars spinning."

"Why can't I have a normal girlfriend?" I resisted the urge to scream that we were no long dating, but decided that that probably wasn't for the best.

"Joe, come on. Can you just wait until I let this information hit the grapevine before you start freaking out in front of people?"

"Sure."

"Listen, I need to call Ella and ask her to bring me some lunch, so I have to go. I don't have my phone back yet, this is Lester's, so I'll call you if I need anything. Lester probably wouldn't like you calling his phone."

"Who's Ella?"

"Ranger's housekeeper. Gotta go, Joe. Bye."

I hung up. My stomach growled. I had just eaten some ice cream cake and my stomach still wasn't happy. Sheesh.

**&&&&&**

After I ate lunch (grilled cheese and tomato soup), I headed down to the control room. I really needed to go check and see if there were any skips at the office, this hiding from stalkers stuff was never good for my bank account.

"Ranger said not to let you leave," was what Bobby told me when I asked for a set of keys.

"Ranger was here?" And he didn't wake me up? That wasn't very nice of him.

"Went up and checked on you, dropped off your bag, then him and Tank left to follow up on a lead. He was up in the apartment for a while, figured you were talking."

Now I was pissed they had a lead on the guy who was stalking me and tried to kill me last night and they didn't even tell me what they had? Not to mention that he was actually up in the same apartment with me and didn't bother to tell me what was going on. I don't remember waking up, what's wrong with my Ranger-sense? Either way, Ranger was being a jerk and I was going to let him know about it. Too bad Bobby was keeping my cell phone at an arms length.

"It wasn't a lead on your guy. Big money skip for Vinny." Damn Merry Men with their ESP.

"Listen Bobby, I'm not just going to sit here and wait until Ranger gets back. I have to go to work, too. Please, just give me a set of keys to any car and I'll be careful. I'm only going to the office." Bobby tossed me my phone.

"If the boss gives you the okay, I'll give you your stuff. I'll be damned if I feel his wrath because I let you just walk out of here."

I glared at Bobby and dialed Ranger.

"Yo."

"Yo yourself. What's this I hear about me not being able to leave RangeMan?"

"For your own protection."

"I have to go to work, too, ya know."

"I was at the office earlier. No skips for you."

"Oh, well I'd still like to see Connie and Lula. And I should catch up with Mary Lou. And I haven't talked to my mother since the dinner with all of us." I looked down at my cell phone screen. Yup, there were messages. "She's been leaving me messages. She probably thinks I'm dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Babe, just stay where you are." I breathed out. For a second there I thought he was going to say 'please', and if he did, there was no way that I was going to be able to argue with him.

"Fine, if I'm not allowed to leave, I'll just have to invite them over here. Just imagine what Grandma Mazur will do when she checks out your apartment. Not to mention Lula. The two of them together and nothing is safe. They'll be in your underwear drawer before even you have time to stop them." I could hear Bobby behind me trying not to laugh.

"Take Bobby with you. Please, don't try to loose him." Disconnect.

Okay, so I won a small battle. I turned to Bobby.

"Looks like we're going out." He just stared at me.

"We?"

"Yep. I'm supposed to take you with me."

"We're not really going to your parents house, are we?" I laughed.

"Do I look suicidal?"

**&&&&&**

I had given Bobby a nice, long, boring, dull, and any other word like that day.

We stopped by the office and Connie confirmed that there were no skips out for me. Then her and Lula spent twenty minutes drilling me on why I had another one of the Merry Men following me and why I smelled of Bulgari. It was all I could do keep them I bay, so what did I do? I teased them. I mentioned that I had some good gossip that no one in the Burg knew about yet, and that when the time arose they would be the first to know.

"Uh huh. Yous sleeping with Batman, ain't you?"

"Oh God Lord your pregnant. Is it Ranger's or Joe's baby? Do you know? Could it be either one? Are you going to need a DNA test?"

"Shit, are you gonna take them on Jerry Springer and confess?"

"Are you going to marry Joe? Will he still marry you if it's Ranger's baby? I mean, he's a good guy, but come on."

It went on like that for another twenty minutes before I finally had them convinced that it was nothing like that. I was a bit surprised that they didn't think of the cars, but I just let it go. No need to give them any ideas.

After that Bobby and I stopped at Pino's for some food. It was dinner time and I didn't know if Ranger and I were supposed to eat together or if Ella was cooking. I figured if she was, I would have to change into a pair of sweats, because there was no way that I was missing out on that. It was nice and quiet. None of the Merry Man talk much. I tried getting him to say something by asking him questions, he just gave me the blank stare. I was getting sick of him not talking and finally threatened to turn him over to Grandma Mazur when he cracked. It wasn't quite twenty questions, but it was interesting. I found out Bobby is originally from Denver. Who would have thunk it?

We headed back to RangeMan around six-thirty when my phone started ringing. My mom. I knew that I had to bite the bullet and answer, she was probably having a nervous breakdown.

"Hey, Mom."

"Stephanie! Where have you been? You didn't blow up another car, did you?"

Not technically. "No, I didn't blow up another car. I'm staying somewhere safe while Ranger and Joe try to find the new crazy person that's been after me."

I sat and let my mother ramble on about how other people's daughters didn't have stalkers trying to kill them for about ten minutes, then we pulled up to the gates of RangeMan.

"Listen, Mom. I'd love to talk longer, but I have a meeting with Ranger and his men to talk about what's going on and how to handle it. I'll give you a call tomorrow." Okay, so that was a complete lie, but my eye was starting to twitch.

"You will not call me tomorrow, I know you better than that." She had me there. "It's fine, as long as you promise that you're still coming on Saturday." Saturday? What the hell was Saturday? My not speaking must have been a clue to my mother. "Please tell you didn't forget about Mary Alice's birthday party." Oh shit. Yes I did.

"Of course not! I would never forget her birthday party! Uhhh, what time and where is it again?" My mother started mumbling.

"Noon, at the park."

"And this is just family, right?"

"Stephanie! Everyone will be there! Everyone! Mary Lou is coming with her kids, people from the police department. Everyone we know! Everyone we know, Stephanie! You have to be here, and you can't have any crazy person with you! What will people say if you start shooting someone during your nieces birthday party?!"

"I promise, Mom. I'll be there."

"And you won't have any crazy people with you?" I couldn't really promise that, but apparently my mother didn't understand that with my job you can't control the crazies.

"Nope, not a single crazy person." I could hear her sigh.

"Don't forget to pick her up a present." And my mother hung up. She actually hung up on me. Urg.

I looked over at Bobby. We were still sitting in the car, and he was smiling at me. He found all of this amusing. Of course he did, he didn't have to go to a birthday party with everyone in the Burg. All those kids, all those people asking me when I was going to settle down and have a family. My eye was already twitching and I felt like I was about to break out in hives.

"Don't laugh, or I'll personally ask for you when Ranger demands that I take someone with me." That shut him up.


	10. Chapter 10

**Disclaimer**: Just playing with Janet Evanovich's characters.  
**Note from Amy Lynne**: Hey kids, here's another chapter! The next two weeks are going to be busy for me. I have a few Harry Potter parties (I warned you, I'm a dork) and on Friday it's time for the big 2-1 for me! I finished my final outline for the story and as of right now it's going to have about 20 chapters (give or take one or two) and a very special out-take that I've been working on. XDD Trust me, you'll enjoy it. Also, just want to say that the neighborhood used in this chapter and the next one is based of a very good friend of mine's apartment complex. It's actually off the streets mentioned in Hamilton Township (where I'm from). Just switch Klockner Boulevard (which is actually used in the books) to Avenue and you'd have directions. Klockner's actually the street I live on, so I'm excited. I'm hoping to maybe get a chapter (or part of one in) for my neighborhood, but we'll see. It might have to wait until the sequel (which I'm in the planning stages for!). Depends on if I write a sequel, we'll see if you guys want it.  
And now I'm done talking. I swear, one of these days I'm NOT going to write a hundred word note at the beginning.  
Oh, and I really want to get up to Chapter Twelve posted tonight, because I love what happens in it, so wish me luck and hope that my friend can check them over for me!

* * *

I woke up the next morning and just laid in Ranger's heavenly sheets for a bit longer than I should have. I knew I should get up. I should shower. I should brush my teeth. I should brush my hair. I should put on actual clothes. But then I knew that I was still going to be on RangeMan lock down until Ranger gave the all clear. Yeah, like that was going to happen anytime soon. Hmmm, I wonder if the Grandma Mazur threat would work again this quick? Probably not, besides I didn't actually have anything to do this morning. At least I don't think I do.

I crawled out of bed and started stumbling into the bathroom. I turned on the water, letting it run warm, and was just about to step in when I heard my cell phone ringing in the distance. It loved to do this to me, didn't it? Just start ringing when I was about to go to sleep, take a nice shower, or have a good time with the shower head. I walked back into the bedroom, naked as the day I was born, and looked at the phone.

Connie.

This could be a promising day.

"Hey. I have a skip here for you. Normally it would go to Ranger, but I called to let him know and he said that you would be able to take care of it."

"Wait, Ranger said what?" That's very unlike Ranger, especially if it was on a high paying bond. Something was most definitely not right here. He was giving me a skip to chase while there was another psycho out looking for me?

"The money's right, but apparently there's no fun in this guy, since he's going to be sitting at home wallowing in his grief. He said you would be over later today to pick it up."

"Oh. Okay."

"Just hurry. I heard Vinnie on the phone with Joyce after he heard that you were taking this instead of Ranger and I'm afraid that he might try something funny." I must have channeled Ranger at that moment because I hung up the phone without even saying goodbye.

I ran back into the bathroom (which now had the water running semi-cold) and took a quick shower. I did the hair thing, deciding to just let it air dry, and put on a couple layers of Jersey war paint a.k.a. make-up. Hey, this guy might just be laying around waiting for someone to pick him up, but that was usually the skip that gave me the most trouble. The ones that are supposed to be no problem, just pick them up, usually ended in me rolling around in garbage.

I went back into the bedroom and grabbed my phone before going into the kitchen, hoping to get a cup of coffee. Instead I got an eyeful of Ranger.

"Babe." I leaned on the island next to him.

"I hear you're letting me out of the building. Not only that, but I'm allowed to work."

"Peter Langdon is a repeat car thief. He's definitely staying in jail this time, but he's not a hard kid to bring in. No thrill in it for my men. You won't get cabin fever and I won't have to worry about you taking a stun gun to one of the guys." Ranger leaned on the island the same way I did.

"I resent that. I accidentally knocked out Lester and I didn't even try to run. I even called you and told you. You should be proud." Ranger smiled.

"Real proud of ya, Babe." Okay, even if Ranger was kidding and poking fun of me (which I couldn't actually tell if he was or not), those words coming out of his mouth always made my heart swell. "You'll have all day to make it up to Lester, he's with you."

"I bet he loves that."

"I think he wants to prove that it's going to take more than you knocking him in the face with a door to take him down again." I smiled and looked over at Ranger. "That doesn't mean I don't want you to be safe today. You go in fully armed."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. And won't my Merry Man being loaded enough for both of us?"

Ranger leaded over and grabbed my by the back of the head, pulling me close as he planted a kiss on my forehead. His lips found their way down to my cheek, then my lips, and I knew he was doing it to make my brain melt and to get me to carry a gun, but at the moment, that didn't really matter. I was getting kiss senseless by Ranger! He had put his other hand on the small of my back and had brought my body close to his, and I could feel how much he was enjoying the kiss. Good to know that I wasn't the only one being affected, and good to know that he wasn't using the power he had over me just to get his way.

"Promise me, Babe," he whispered against my lips. "Please, tell me that you'll take your gun, and the stun gun, and the pepper spray, and your cuffs with you today."

Ranger rested his forehead against mine. I could tell that his eyes were open and trained on me, but I kept my eyes closed. I knew the look he was giving me. It was intense and even if he hadn't said the 'P' word, I probably won't have been able to say no to it. I just shook my head yes, which resulted in him kissing my forehead again.

"I'll be in meetings until around three, but if you need anything, call." He backed up just enough that I was at arms length, seeing as his hand was still on my back and I finally opened my eyes. That bastard had a grin on his face. "If you promise to be good we might finish this later."

**&&&&&**

Lester and I were heading over to Peter Langdon's apartment in Hamilton Township. Lester was turning onto Klockner Boulevard and I was apologizing for the seven hundredth time about hitting him in the face with the door.

"Really, Lester. If I had known that you were there... I wasn't aiming for you or anything. It's nothing personal. If there's anything I can do to make it up to you..."

"There is." Well shit, I didn't think he would actually say that. This is one of Ranger's men. Aside from the fact that it was a new development that they could speak at times, I don't think Ranger would like the idea of me doing things for them, at least agreeing to do things without knowing what they were, and that's what I was about to do.

"Anything." Lester turned left past the pet cemetery and we were soon turning into Langdon's complex.

"Stop apologizing. It was an accident. Getting taken out by the Bomber is a right of passage into RangeMan anymore."

I didn't know if I should be honored or insulted. For the moment I was going to pretend to be honored, but I would be plotting my revenge.

Lester pulled to a stop a few apartments down from Langdon's. They were nice apartments. Four to a unit, two downstairs, two upstairs. Langdon's was on the bottom right. The bottoms had plain fronts while they would have a little patio in the back, the tops had small balcony's in the fton. There weren't any cars parked out front and it looked like his mail was sticking out of the mailbox. Just my luck. A perfectly easy capture is going to turn into a pain. At least I had Lester instead of Lula to back me up. Thank God for small favors.

"How do you want to do this?" Lester asked, gearing himself up as we stepped out of the car.

I was leaving my gun in the car. I would take the stun gun and cuffs, of course. Hey, I promised Ranger I would bring them, I didn't say that I would bring them in.

A look from Lester told me otherwise, so I reached in through the open window of the Bronco and grabbed my gun.

"I'll take the front and you take the back?" Lester nodded.

"I'll wait until I hear you make contact, then I'll go in."

We made our way over to the apartment and I watched as Lester made his way around back, gun drawn. I swear, the Merry Men could be so dramatic at times. I gave him a few minutes before I started pounding on the door.

"Mr. Langdon?" The door swung open on it's own when I knocked. Never a good sign.

I peeked my head around the corner where the door had just opened and walked into the living room. I should have my gun drawn, Ranger would flip if he found out that I didn't, but instead it was sticking out of the waistband of my jeans. I smelled something. It was a bad smell. It was the smell that I was becoming all too familiar with. I looked into the kitchen and there it was, the dead body of Peter Langdon.

I put my hand over my mouth and quickly turned to run outside and hurl when I slammed into a body. I made a silent promise to God that if it was Bobby being sneaky I would give up Tasty Kakes for a week.

God must know I could never make good on that one, because when I looked up it was Christopher, and he had his Glock pointed at me.

"Toss your gun onto the floor." I did as I was told. "Go sit down on the couch." I did as he said again, and he stepped backwards and closed the front door, never letting his eyes leave mine.

'Come on, Lester,' I thought, 'pop in here and do that superhero bullshit.'

"I'm afraid your friend won't be joining us for this chat. He took a baseball bat to the back of his head." I winced. I really hope Lester was alright. Ranger was probably going to dig into him about not being aware of his surrounding if someone was able to sneak up on him. "I'm sure he'll be fine, and you will be too, as long as you answer my questions. I would hate for someone as pretty as you to turn out like Pete here." My stomach rolled. I would really hate for me to turn out like Pete, too.

I careful felt my jean pocket, stun gun was there and ready to go, I just had to get this freak close enough to me, and hope that he didn't notice what I was doing. I'm not usually gracefull about these things.

"What do you want to know?" Christopher smiled.

"That's what I like to hear." He went into the kitchen and grabbed one of the wooden chairs, sitting it across from me on the other side of dead Peter Langdon's coffee table. I had to admit, he had a nice apartment, too bad it was invaded with death cooties. "What do you know about Ricardo Carlos Manoso?"

"Don't know anyone by that name." Christopher's smile faded and his face tightened. He cocked his gun. Way too piss of the crazy, Stephanie! "I do know someone named Ranger, though."

"What can you tell me about Ranger?"

"He owns RangeMan."

"And?"

"And he does the occasional skip for my cousin, Vinnie."

"And?"

"And he eats the same kind of food as a rabbit." Christopher sighed and looked me in the eye.

"What can you tell me about Joesph Morelli?"

"He's a cop."

"Anything else?"

"Neither one of them like it when people threaten me. The seem to take it personally." I crossed my arms in front of chest. Way to be tough!

"Oh really?" Christopher got up and put his gun to my face. "And how would they feel if you suddenly turned up dead?"

Well, Lester would probably kill himself first, since that would be a lot easier than facing the wrath of Ranger. Or Joe. And sometimes I got the feeling that my Dad, no matter how quiet he normally is, would pull that crazy protective dad stuff.

"I don't think they would appreciate the gesture." I swear, I must of eaten my Wheaties this morning! I only remember some Fruit Loops, but hey, I've been wrong about the amount of food I've taken it at once before.

Christopher laughed. "I'm sure they wouldn't. What can you tell me about Amelia Lion?" Who?

I sat there for a minute, thinking about the name. It sounded familiar, very familiar. Amelia, Amelia, Amelia, Amelia. She graduated with Valerie. Rumor was that she was also one of Joe's lucky girls back in high school, though I never heard about anything written on the bathroom walls about her. She had been married once briefly, had a daughter who's name I couldn't remember, and divorced. Last I heard she was dating an mobster that owned a shitty car dealership on South Broad, then she dropped of the Burg radar.

"I don't know anything about Amelia. She wasn't in my year at school. We weren't friends."

Christopher sat down next to me, putting his gun on the coffee table. I slowly reached into my pocket for my stun gun.

"Stephanie, I know you know more. Men like to tell their woman things about work, it's just what we do." Obviously he's never met Joe or Ranger. He turned my face towards his and I resisted the urge to gag. "Just tell me where she is and I promise I'll leave you alone."

"If I knew where she was, I would tell you, obviously I don't. I don't like people who try to kill me and send nice cars to car heaven." Christopher throw his head back in laughter and I started to make my move towards him, but he quickly picked back up his gun.

He smiled, and, never taking his eyes off me, shot Peter Langdon's dead body three times. I jumped. I might have started crying. I might have gagged, I don't exactly remember.

"I'll give you one last chance, Stephanie. That little episode was just a warning. If I wanted you dead it would have happened already. I could do worse to you, much worse." I didn't doubt that. There are plenty fates worse then death.

We both turned our heads towards the front door. We had both heard it. It sounded like a car had pulled up. Christopher stood, held his gun, and stalked towards the door. I saw my chance.

I grabbed my stun gun, ran into Christopher full force, causing him to send off another shot, before I made contact with skin and hit that little red button that I love so dear. Christopher went ridged for a moment before his body went limp under me. I quick grabbed his gun, my gun, and ran towards the back door. I had to find Lester.

It didn't take me long. He was spread out right behind the backdoor with a baseball bat next to him, just like the crazy promised. I knew I had to move fast, but I also knew that I would never be able to move him myself. I ripped out my phone and dialed Ranger.

"Yo."

"I need someone to come to Peter Langdon's apartment in Hamilton Township, NOW."

I could hear rapid movement on the other line and Ranger barking out some orders.

"What happened, Babe?"

"Langdon's dead. Our friendly neighborhood stalker was here. Lester went around back and was taken out with a baseball bat to the head. I stunned the guy, but I don't know how long he's going to be out for, and I highly doubt I'm going to be able to move Lester on my own."

"I'll have people there in ten. Babe, I want you to get into the Bronco and drive back to RangeMan. Someone will see you and follow you back, just take Klockner to Hamilton back to Haywood."

"Excuse me? I'm not going to just leave Lester out here! I took the guys gun away and I have mine plus however many Lester's carrying, I'm fine. I'm in the back with Lester."

"Babe, get into the Bronco."

"No."

"Babe."

"Dammit, Ranger, no. It's one thing for me to be the cause of so many hospital visits for your men, but I'll be damned if I'm going to leave one here helpless."

Ranger was silent for a good minute. I couldn't tell if he was tiring to control his anger (probably), or trying to think of a way to tell me that my refusal to move was noble.

"Don't move, and don't take your eyes off the door." Aha! That's more like it!

I've done some stupid things in my time. Really stupid. I tend to jump first, ask later, but I was actually a bit proud of myself for this. Yes, there's a chance that this is something very stupid of me to do, seeing as Christopher could have another gun, but what I told Ranger was the truth. I refuse to Lester just lying out in the dirt. He didn't have a choice about coming here, I did. I dragged him into this. I wasn't going to run like a coward. I was going to stand here, Christopher's gun trained at the back door (since it was bigger than mine), and wait until Ranger and the Merry Men showed up and took out the bad guy. I just hoped the bad guy would wait that long.

I had been waiting five minutes maybe, so five more until Ranger was here, when I heard a movement in the bush to the side of the apartment building.

Now I could be in trouble. If I took my eyes off the back door because there was a rabbit or a groundhog in the bush then Christopher might come storming at me. If I kept my eyes trained on the back door, someone could sneak up from the bush. I could feel Lester starting to stir at my feet. Dammit, hurry up! I knew he wouldn't be one hundred perfect, but I figured ten perfect of a Merry Man could be better than my all.


	11. Chapter 11

**Disclaimer**: _Just playing with Janet's characters!  
_**Note from Amy Lynne**: Another chapter! If I get twelve tonight it probably won't be until later on. Let's hope! Let me know what you guys think!

**&&&&&**

I had decided to keep my gun trained on the back door. Whatever (or whoever) was in the bush was going to have to make more noise if they moved, and maybe if I was lucky I would be able to have the gun in my hand moved in their direction before they could attack me.

Time was ticking by way too slow, my heart was pounding, I had beads of sweat dripping off my face, and I felt like an idiot standing in someone's barely there background pointing a gun at a door where the world could see. I thought about lowering the gun, but knowing my luck Ranger would show up and I would never be allowed to leave RangeMan again. Joe might not like the idea, but he knew that staying with Ranger was safe.

I heard movement by the bush again and this time there was a lot. I screamed like the wimp that I am and fired off a shot. I heard it hit the side of the building. I have amazing aim.

"Cupcake?"

I opened my eyes (when the hell did they close?!) and was staring at Joe. What the hell? He must of been reading my thoughts, because he lowered his weapon and shook his head.

"You just shot at me." Holy shit I just shot at Joe. My ex-boyfriend. A cop.

I dropped my gun and put my hands to my mouth. I made a move towards him, but, forgetting about Lester, I tripped over his legs and landed on a heap in the dirt.

"Ouch." Joe bent down and helped me to my feet, brushing my curls out of my face. "Oh, God, Joe, I am so sorry!" I wrapped my arms around his neck and pulled him close. I just realized that I was shaking, but it wasn't that much of a surprise. I felt Joe's arms encircle me and I sighed. "What are you doing here?" I mumbled as I buried my face into his neck. He was robbing soothing circles on my back.

"I was in the neighborhood checking on a witness in ICU at Robert Wood and just had the gut feeling that you were somehow involved. I knew that Langdon missed court and that if this had been given to Ranger, he wouldn't have made the mistake of letting anyone hear the shots." Ah, so a neighbor heard and called the cops. Good people, unlike the ones in my building. I could have a shoot out there and the old farts would never hear a thing.

I pulled back from Joe, but didn't move far away. We were still holding on to each other. "Is Christopher still out cold?" He gave me a confused look. "My stalker? He was in there! He shot Langdon three times. Those were the shots fired."

Langdon. Dead body. Fuck.

I pulled away from Joe and raced towards the nearest bush before loosing my breakfast in it. Good thing I'm tough.

Joe came up behind me and held my hair while he rubbed my back.

"There was no one in there except a dead Langdon, Steph." Huh.

"Christopher knocked Lester out and then met me inside. I tried to leave when I saw Langdon but he blocked my way." I could hear cars pulling up. Guess Ranger wasn't trying to be quiet. "He made me answer questions about you and Ranger, but didn't get far." I turned my head around and looked at Joe and couldn't help but smirk. "I think I might have pissed him off."

Joe tossed his head back and laughed. "That surprises you?"

"I stunned him and ran out here to check on Lester."

"Did you call it in?" Joe asked.

"Babe?" Guess that answered his question.

Joe and I both turned and looked at Ranger. Then I noticed how this must have looked. Bobby knocked out cold, Joe standing behind me rubbing my back, and me bent at the waist. Fan-fucking-tastic. We all stood in silence for a moment, not really knowing how to approach the subject of what actually had happened.

"Planning on taking her back to your building, Manoso?" Joe finally asked. Ranger just tilted his head a fraction of an inch.

Joe let his hand slip down my back and it rested on my ass. Ranger's eyes got dark. I stood up quick and swatted Joe's hand away. He looked at the ground and laughed.

"I have to go call this in. If you're going to leave, I suggest doing it now. It's not just the TPD that have bets on you, Cupcake." I nodded at Joe. He leaned in and kissed me just below the ear. "Call me if you need anything." And he started walking away. He stopped when he was standing next to Ranger and nodded his head towards Lester. "You might want to get him checked out."

Well this was going to be a pleasant conversation. A real Ranger-Stephanie heart-to-heart. Yeah right. Ranger was going to stand there with his blank face and let me explain everything, not say a word, and then lock me up tight.

He made his way over to me and placed his hand on the small of my back, not far from where he had it earlier this morning and where Morelli had had his moments before. He started steering me around the building so I didn't have to look at the dead body again. At least, I assumed that's what he was doing. He pushed me towards his truck and opened the passages door for me.

"Wait here."

Like I was going to go anywhere.

I watched as he went over to Tank. I assumed he was going to have someone check on Lester. Shit, I got him knocked out twice in the same amount of days. I guess I was going for the gold. I could also see Morelli in his cop car from here. He was staring at me. I smiled at him and he just shook his head.

I swear, men are complicated. I wish I could get in their heads.

Ranger came back and hopped into the driver's side of the truck. He gunned the engine and we headed back towards the RangeMan building.

"Want to tell me what happened?"

So I did. Every little detail, making special note of how I actually took my gun into the apartment with me. I tended to try to skip over how I didn't have it out when I got in there, but I think Ranger already knew that.

"Please, please, don't be mad at Lester. He let me run it and I made the decision to send him around back."

"I'm not mad at Lester, Babe. I'm just glad your okay. If you had gone around back who knows what could have happened." Well I never thought about it like that. "Tank is making sure Lester gets checked up and that someone picks up your body receipt for Langdon." I just nodded my head.

We sat in silence almost the whole way back to the RangeMan building. Out of nowhere, Ranger let out a laugh. That's right, a laugh. I snapped my head in his direction and he quickly righted himself.

"What's so funny?" He just shook his head. "What? Ranger!" He started laughing again.

"You really have a knack for knocking out my guys, don't you? At first I just thought it was strange and a pain in the ass, but now it's really funny." I wasn't seeing the humor and I think Ranger could tell by the look on my face.

He picked up my hand and kissed the palm.

"My guys love ya, Babe. It's not a chore to be on Bombshell duty. There's usually a line for who gets to go next. They like the idea of big things coming in small packages. It's the exact opposite of them." That almost sounded like a compliment. Almost.

"They liked being knocked out?" Ranger turned onto Haywood.

"No, but they like getting to work with you. They always come back with stories to tell."

"Just entertainment for them, huh?" I remembered Ranger telling me that once, that he wrote me off in his business expenses as entertainment. While I could see how that could be true, didn't mean it wouldn't sting any less.

Ranger was still holding my hand and rubbing small circles on it.

"Babe, if you were just entertainment I would have gotten rid of you long ago." That's a comforting thought, I guess.

My stomach choose this moment to make itself heard.

"Hungry?"

"I'm always hungry after seeing a dead person and having a person threaten me at gun point." We pulled into the garage.

"What do you want to eat?" Ranger asked as he pulled into his spot. As I hopped out of the car I thought about it.

"Anything?" Ranger just nodded as we got on the elevator. "Ever heard of Torro's?"

"Little deli type place on South Broad." I nodded my head. "I'll call and have the food ordered and brought to us. You can take a shower."

A shower sounded amazing. I think I might have moaned a little as I rested my head on Ranger's shoulder.

"Babe." Yeah, I definitely moaned. Quick! Change the subject!

"What are you and Joe working on?" The elevator stopped and we got out. Ranger grabbed my hand in his.

"Not gonna happen, Babe." He opened the door one handed and quickly shut it, pressing me up against the door, hands on my hips.

There was no kissing, but he was staring at me like a lion ready to pounce. Lion. Lion? Lion!

"Does it have something to do with Amelia Lion?" I barely whispered as my lips grazed his. Ranger stiffened, and not in the good way, before taking a step back.

"Go take a shower, Babe. I'll order the food." Ohhh, I had hit a nerve! I was definitely on the right track. Now I just had to figure where what exactly was being worked on.

**&&&&&**

I got in and out of the shower without further problems from Ranger. I changed into a pair of old Christmas boxers and a t-shirt before following the smell of food into the kitchen. I was almost drooling at the site of our chicken wraps.

I know I don't usually like heathy or even remotely heathy food, but Torro's is absolutely amazing. The have the best wraps and hoagies I think in the state, though Wawa runs a close second in the hoagie department, at least the Wawa on 33.

I grabbed one of the wraps and I assumed that the contain that held fries was for me, before sitting at the table to eat. Ranger walked in a moment later and grabbed each a bottle of water before sitting down with his wrap and salad.

"Tank called. Lester's fine. Took him a while to come around, but he'll be okay." I nodded my head and looked up from stuffing my face. Ranger was smirking.

"Am I missing something?"

"When he came to Tank acted like he was in a panic and asked where you were. He said Lester nearly shit himself. They got it on all tape thanks to the security cameras."

"That was mean," I said in between my giggles. Tank really made Lester fear for his life.

We continued to eat in silence. I was just finishing up the last bite of my chicken when Ranger's phone rang.

"When? Was anyone hurt? How far out?" He glanced down at his watch. "I'll be there in five." He hung up his phone and quickly stood, getting rid of his garbage. "I gotta go, Babe." He turned and looked at me. "There was a problem with a job I'm working on, people have to be moved." Willing giving up information. Interesting.

He leaned over and kissed me on the top of my head while I wiped my face on a napkin. "Will you be here when I get back?" I looked at him like he was crazy.

"I have a choice?"

"You always have a choice, Babe. Just didn't know if you were going to go and stay with Morelli, is all." I wondered if he was going to bring that up. I just shook my head no.

"No, I'll stay here."

Ranger captured my lips with his, using his hand to tilt my chin up to give him access.

"Sorry we can't finish what we started this morning." I felt a familiar rush of heat in the bottom of my belly. Ranger kissed me soft on the lips. "Don't wait up."

And with that he was gone.

**&&&&&**

It was early, only 9PM, and I was bored out of my mind. I had watched Ghostbusters, flipped through everything On Demand, and had even called home.

My mother reminded me of Mary Alice's party and had a heartattack when I confirmed that the rumors about today were true. Grandma was excited that she was getting the details first hand. Apparently she was going to the Clip N Curl tomorrow.

As a last resort I picked up my phone again and called Mary Lou.

"Omg, it's true!" she shrieked as soon as she heard it was me.

"What's true?" I was confused. I hadn't even said anything yet!

"That your pregnant with that Cuban hottie's triplets and Joe is going to raise them as his own. The weddings in two weeks, that way you don't look pregnant in your pictures."

I fell off the couch.

"WHAT?!?"

"You mean it's not true?" The bitch had the nerve to actually sound disappointed.

"NO! Not even close!"

"Damn. I kind of thought that triplets was overkill, but you never know."

I needed to make this rumor go away or fast. If my mother heard it she would ironing toilet paper and never giving me dessert again, and it obviously hadn't reached her yet. After the rumors about today (which I was surprised Mary Lou didn't bring up), my mother might start ironing people.

"I was in car accident with Ranger. The Turbo was destroyed." Fuck. I didn't want that to come out already, but I had to go with something. Hopefully Eddie put his bets in.

"YOU DESTROYED THE PORSCHE?!"

"Yeah. We were hit by a semi-truck."

"What did Ranger say?" I sat straight up.

"He said, 'I liked that car.'"

Mary Lou waited a second before answering. "No confessions of love when you thought you were dying in each others arms?" I had to laugh.

"No, nothing like that."

"But you two are together, right?"

"Well, no. I'm staying at his apartment because I have another psycho after me." That was the truth. Me and Ranger together? Not really.

"So, wait. Then Joe's cheating on you?" I laughed again.

"No, Joe and I broke - what do you mean is Joe cheating on me? Who's Joe seeing?" The phone got quiet. Wayyyy too quiet. "Mary Lou you answer this question right now or I'll never give you another bit of gossip for as long as I live."

"Terry Gilman! He's been seen around with Terry Gilman." That fucker and that bitch. "Please tell me that slut really isn't sleeping with him."

The truth was I had no idea. I really wished that wasn't the case.

"I gotta go, Mary Lou." And before she could answer I hung up.

Two seconds later it rang again.

"Mary Lou, I'm tired, I just want to go to bed."

"Shut your mouth white girl, it's me." Lula, my savior. Who would ever think I would see her as that. But then after Joyce unintentionally saved my ass once I guess anything is possible.

"What's up, Lula?"

"I was just hear checking up on Jackie down on Stark, and you never guess what I just seen." I rubbed my forehead. "Batman and that Jean Ellen bitch."

"Excuse me?" I sat straight up. Well, straighter, if that was even possible.

By now Lula was panting. I guess she was trying to keep up with them. Good luck with that.

"That crazy fucking bounty hunter bitch. I thought you were staying with Batman." Did I tell the girls that? I couldn't remember. Oh, well. I assumed everyone knew.

"I am."

"That little asshole left you to go and see her? What the hell is this world coming to?" That's exactly what I was thinking.

"Are you still on Stark?" I asked Lula.

I was running into the bedroom, trying to get clothes together so I could make a mad dash over there. Not nearly a smart idea, but I was going to go with it.

"Yeah, but- Oh fuck. Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck."

I pulled a shirt out of the closet. "What?" I could hear noise in the background, but no Lula. "Lula! Lula, are you alright?"

"Babe?" Oh fuck was right.

"Ranger? What are you doing hanging out with Lula?" Play innocent, Steph. Act like you don't know anything.

"She was doing a horrible job of tailing me. I'm sure she called you as soon as she saw me with Jean Ellen." As any good friend would. "At the moment she's sitting on the curb fanning herself. I think she got a hot flash when I took her phone." That sounded about right. "Don't come down here, Babe."

I stopped dead with my jeans half way up my leg.

"I wasn't planning on coming down there." I think I might have sounded a bit out of breath and rushed.

"Yes, you were. Just stay there. I'll talk to you when I get back to RangeMan." And his disconnected.

What the hell was going on? Joe's hanging out with Terri Gilman and fucking Ranger is out on Stark with Jean Ellen. I was going to get to the bottom of this, and it was going to be sooner rather than later.


	12. Chapter 12

**Disclaimer**: _Just playing with Janet's characters.  
_**Note from Amy Lynne**: My last update for the day. My friend had time to look through before she went to work. How nice of her. Probably won't get an update again until the middle of the week. Review and let me know what you think!

**&&&&&**

After I got off the phone with Ranger I started pacing around the apartment. I called down to the command center and told them as soon as Ranger was back in the building they were to let me know. I don't really know if Hector understood, but he said 'Si', so I was hoping for the best. I doubted I would actually get a call, but it made me feel like I was going something productive.

I tried to call Joe and get some answers from him on the Terry front, but all I got was his voice mail. "Call me the second you get this if you want to live to see tomorrow."

I liked my message.

I ended up going and laying down in Ranger's heavenly sheets, but not even that was keeping me calm.

I knew I was in a bad way. There were too many thoughts running in my head.

Amelia Lions, Jean Ellen, Terry Gilman, Joe, and Ranger. They all seem to be connected. This was more than just a coincidence. Hmmm. I'd have to wait until I talked to Eddie and could suck some information out of Ranger before I came to any conclusions. Hey, Ranger did say we would talk when he got back. Whether that meant he would tell me we couldn't talk about it or he would give me a breadcrumb I wasn't sure.

I finally fell asleep on the couch watching Ghostbusters for the sixth time around 3AM.

I woke up feel refreshed, if that was even possible. I reached to my left and stretched myself out a bit. I was pretty sure I was in Ranger's bed. I guess that means Ranger came back sometime. At least I knew he was alright. Then I heard the noise that had woken me up.

A ringing.

A very annoying ringing.

The type of ringing that I hear when my mother calls my cell phone.

I groaned and rolled over grabbing the phone off the nightstand. I squinted my eye open and saw the read out. 'Mom'.

I considered just letting it ring and ring, but then the words from Mary Lou came flushing back to me and I thought it would be better if I just got it out of the way.

I squeezed my eyes shut and sat up in the bed. Taking a deep breath I flipped the phone open.

"Hey, Ma. I swear, whatever rumors you're hearing about Joe and me getting married are not true. And the ones about Ranger and me having triplets is even less true. Not an ounce of truth. So please, since I know you're already doing, stop ironing the toilet paper and let the house breathe. Don't worry about what to tell the neighbors. Tell them they are all lies."

There was a small breath that I could almost swear sounded like a laugh. My mother wouldn't laugh about this. I must still be half-asleep.

"It's very nice to know that Ricardo isn't having children with a woman he has yet to introduce to the family."

Huh?

"Ma, what the hell are you..."

I think I just lost my voice.

Since when did my mother have an accent? Since when did she call Ranger anything other than 'that bounty hunter'? Since when would my mother think that this situation was funny? She would never make a joke. And since when would my mother be concerned with me meeting Ranger's family?

I was getting a bad feeling about this. A horrible, sickening, terrible, stick-a-fork-in-me-I'm done, feeling about this.

I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at the phone in my hands.

Definitely not my phone.

Definitely Ranger's phone.

That means I was talking to ... HOLY SHIT.

"Babe?"

I looked up and there was Ranger, in all his naked and wet glory. Hair down, towel around his waist, staring at me with probably the most confused look that he could muster.

I looked at him, then looked at the phone. Then I looked back and him.

"Oh. My. God." I jumped off the bed and handed him the phone. I think I was near tears. Hell, I might have already been crying. "Ranger I am soooooo sorry. I talked to Mary Lou last night and you know how the Burg grapevine works. Well, apparently I'm having your triplets and Morelli is going to raise them as his own and we're getting married. I heard a phone ringing and rolled over and saw Mom and just assumed it was my mother calling me to freak out." I gently placed the phone in his hands. He looked it.

For the first time ever I think Batman didn't know what to do.

"I might have just answered your phone. And I might have just have told the Batmom that I'm not giving her grandchildren. And I'm pretty sure I'm about to be shipped off to a third world country. All I ask is that you let me say goodbye to Rex. No matter how horrible a mother I am to him, he deserves to know the truth of what's going on. Tell my mother I love her, tell Grandma that I was kidnapped by the Slayers again (she'll like that story), tell Valerie to stop being so damn perfect. Tell my dad I'll miss him. Tell Connie, and Lula, and Mary Lou that they were the best shopping buddies ever. Hell, I'm even going to miss Morelli, and Mooner, and Tank and Lester and Bobby. Just make sure there's a mall near by and I might be okay. How many malls do they have in Ethiopia anyway?"

I was pretty sure I was still talking, but by now Ranger had taken the phone and was talking in rapid Spanish to his mother.

Holy shit I was just talking to the Batmom. And now Ranger was talking to Batmom. Oh. God.

I was sitting on the corner of the bed trying to calm my breathing, I was close to hyperventilating. Ranger was standing in the doorway to the bathroom. I wasn't looking at him in the face, but I knew he was there.

I'm pretty sure he kept telling his mother 'no' about something. Oh God, I was in so much trouble.

I climbed back into the bed, curling into a ball around a pillow, deciding if I was going to go, I was going to enjoy these sheets at least one last time. I almost thought about sleep, but whatever was coming for me, I wanted to see it coming. Didn't want any surprises.

I heard Ranger get off the phone and walk back into the bedroom. I pried an eye open. Still in a towel. Still wet. Still yummy. Still going to ship me off.

"Babe." I heard him walk closer to the bed and then sit. He put his hand on my back. "Babe?"

I rolled over and looked at him. "I am so so so so so so so sorry."

"She was very interested in you." I raised an eyebrow, or both my eyebrows since I can't raise just one. Notice he didn't accept my apology, though.

"Apology accepted, even though you did happen to tell her I was wet and only in a towel." Yes! The ESP works in my favor! But wait, I told his mother he was only in a towel. Why me?! "She wanted you to come to dinner on Saturday night." That had me sitting straight up in bed.

Me? Dinner? Batfamily? I think I might have just had a mini-orgasm. Ranger laughed.

"I told her we couldn't make it. Have Mary Alice's birthday party." I nodded my head.

"You said we." See, I can notice things, too.

"Yeah, Babe, I did. I heard you threatened Bobby, so I thought I would take on this punishment myself." He leaned down and kissed me on the forehead. "You're not leaving this building until then."

"Excuse you?" You think these people would learn how do deal with me by now. You tell me I'm not or I can't do something, that's going to be the one thing I want to do. I swear, these men, complete idiots.

And by the way Ranger was looking at me I think I was mumbling that all out loud. Damn. It was just not my morning.

"Babe, you can either stay here willingly, or I'm going to cuff one hand to Bobby and one hand to Lester." I shot him a look. "You could have easily be killed yesterday. You said this Christopher guy admitted being responsible in some way for the semi accident. He held a gun to your head. You are not leaving this building." I crossed my arms over my chest. "Don't give me that look, Babe."

"I'll leave if I damn well please." And just to prove a point I made to get up, but Ranger was too quick. He had me pinned underneath him in two seconds flat, leaving soft kisses across my collarbone.

"I can make it worth your wild." I swallowed hard. Stay focused, Stephanie! Stay focused!

"So you can leave whenever you please to see Jean Ellen?" Probably not the smartest thing to say, because Ranger stopped dead in his tracks, right in the valley between my breasts. I swear, he wasn't breathing, and I don't think I was.

Wait, when did my shirt get off?

He planted one small kiss on me.

"That was work."

"What kind of work?"

"The kind you don't can't know about." I pushed him off me and walked over to the dresser.

"Ranger, I want to go home, back to my apartment." I could hear Ranger moving around on the bed behind me. I turned around to look at him while we were talking and oh good lord the towel had some how fallen off. I quick turned back around to the dresser. "Can you honestly expect me to be able to have a clear thought with you like that?" I heard him move and he came up behind me, running his hands down my arms lightly.

"Just stay here for today, Babe. At least until I can think of something better. Please." Damn that word.

"Urg! Fine!" I tossed my clothes on the floor and marched to the bathroom, slamming and locking the door behind me.

Ranger was going to be the death of me. He got all defensive last night over Morelli, but I can't be a little upset of Jean Ellen?

Why did this all of a sudden feel like Ranger and me were in some kind of relationship. This is very strange. We need to have a talk. A big. I could tell it was big if I was admitting to need to it. I was confused. I was in danger (again). I was being kept one step below in a safe house. Ranger was being possessive. Maybe it was just the threat? If it was, why did it feel like more? Urg.

I opened the door to ask Ranger exactly what the hell was going on. I stuck my head into the room and didn't seem him, but I could hear the apartment door close.

**&&&&&**

It was ten in the morning and I had absolutely nothing to do. I was already bored. I had gotten dressed and had breakfast (the most amazing omelette ever made in the history of the world). I had called my mother. Apparently my telling Mary Lou what happened to the Turbo last night stopped the pregnant and getting married rumors, at least for now. I could hear my grandmother in the background trying to get my mother to ask me all the details, but it wasn't happening. Mom was just having fun complaining.

Now I was lying on my back, spread eagle, on Ranger's bed.

That's it, I could take it anymore. I am not meant to sit in one place and do nothing.

I walked through the apartment, grabbed a set of keys, and made my way to the command center on the fifth floor. I was going to find out what Ranger was up to. I wasn't exactly sure, but I was going to figure it out when I got there. I can think on my feet, most of the time.

No one seemed to notice when I entered the floor. Either that or they didn't care. Good, less of a chance someone would notice me corner a Merry Man. Tank was working with Lester on something in the corner, probably a battle plan to keep me occupied. Hector was, once again, manning the monitors. Sheesh, did that guy do anything else? A few guys who I only knew in passing were making their way to the gym. And there was Bobby, sitting in an opposite corner, reading some kind of report.

Bingo.

I walked over to him and sat down. He nodded at me and kept drinking whatever it was he was drinking (I thought maybe tea from the smell, but I couldn't be sure).

I turned in my chair to face him, but he just ignored me. I leaned on my elbow. I was going to at least give him the chance to say hi.

"What Ranger working on?" Okay, maybe not.

Bobby just looked up to me for a moment and then back down. Damn these Merry Men and their ability to ignore people. I really needed to get that skill. There are plenty of people I would love to be able to ignore on a moments notice.

"Bobby?"

"Bomber."

"What's Ranger working on."

"Secret."

"Elaborate."

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Tell me or else."

Bobby put the report down. "Or else what?"

"Or else I'm going to try and sneak out of here and then you're going to be stuck with me and Lester until Saturday. Just think. I'll have to go to the bathroom, seeing my Grandmother, Lula, Mary Lou and her kids. You'll have to sleep in Ranger's apartment." Okay, so we probably wouldn't be sleeping in Ranger's apartment, but it was worth mentioning. And ha! He was looking nervous.

"You wouldn't really do that, would you, Bomber?" I almost felt bad for him.

"Does it have something to do with Amelia Lions?" His eyes were wide. "I'll take that as a yes. Is he protecting her?" Eyes still wide. I patted Bobby on the shoulder. "Thanks buddy, that's all I needed." I went and walked back over to the elevator, walked in, and down to the garage. Damn, who knew getting information out of a Merry Man would be that easy?

I played with the keys in my hand a little bit and then looked back and forth. I made a mad dash for the Bronco. Oh dear God let Hector be pre-occupied. Oh please, oh please, oh please. Maybe if I just acted like I was allowed to live no one would think twice if they happened to be watching.

Who was I kidding, I needed to get out of here and out of her fast.

I got in, turned the key and almost did a little dance. I backed up and headed for the gate, pushing the button for it to open. It didn't. I slowed down a bit, but didn't completely stop, and hit the button again. Still nothing. I came to a complete stop and put the Bronco in park. Come on you stupid keypad! I started pounding on the buttons. Gah! Not fair!

I nearly pissed myself when I heard a knock on my window. It was Hector. Interesting. If Ranger was in the building I'm sure he would have come down himself. I guess that means he's out having a good time with Amelia Lions and the other bitch. Maybe this means I won't get told on.

I put my window down and did a little finger wave. "Hi."

"No."

"No?"

"No. You stay, Bomber. Boss order."

I was going to argue, but I turned in my seat and saw what appeared to be the entire staff behind me in the parking garage. Damn. He couldn't just send one. No, not Ranger. He had to have the whole staff come out after me. If it was only one I might have chanced it by gunning through the gate, but this? This was a bit insane.

"Oooh, Ranger wants me to stay in the building."

"Si."

I gave a sheepish laugh. "Yeah, I forgot."


End file.
